Tag: 12th Century

The Holy and Right-believing Queen of Queens, Tamara, reigned over Georgia during its Golden Age and shone forth in the firmament of the Church as a model of piety, justice, and apostolic zeal.

Born around the year 1160 to King George III and his pious consort Burdukhan, Tamara was a descendant of the royal Bagrationi house—blood-descendants of the Prophet-King David. In the year 1184, she ascended the throne of her fathers. From the outset of her reign, she manifested the wisdom of Solomon and the humility of the saints. She convened a great ecclesiastical council to uproot the tares of canonical irregularity, addressing the gathered hierarchs with the words: “Investigate all things well… Begin with me, for this royal dignity is for service, and not for warring against God.”

The Holy Tamara’s life was marked by great personal trials. Against her personal wishes, she was persuaded to marry Yuri, a prince of the Rus’, who proved to be of a dissolute and savage nature. For two and a half years, the Queen endured his wickedness with the patience of a martyr, seeking his repentance through the counsel of holy monks. When his impenitence defiled the sanctity of the marriage bed, she separated from him, later entering into a blessed and fruitful union with the valiant David Soslan, a prince of the Ossetians, with whom she had two children, George and Rusudan.

As a sovereign, Tamara was called a second Constantine. She abolished the death penalty and the practice of mutilation throughout her realm, ruling not by the sword of terror but by the law of mercy. Her heart was a sanctuary for the poor; she tithed the entire revenue of the kingdom to the destitute and, despite her royal estate, laboured with her own hands to embroider garments for the clergy and the needy. Her reach extended far beyond the borders of Georgia, as she provided generous endowments to the monasteries of Mount Athos, Jerusalem, Mount Sinai, and the Black Mountain.

In times of war, the Holy Queen did not rely on the multitude of her hosts but on the power of the Precious and Life-giving Cross. During the great invasion by the Sultan Nukardin, who blasphemously challenged the Orthodox Christian Faith, Tamara led her armies to the Church of the Mother of God at Metekhi. There, having removed her royal shoes, she prayed barefoot and with torrents of tears while her troops marched to the Battle of Basiani. Through their piety and faith in Mother of God and the Life-Giving Cross, the small Georgian forces achieved a decisive and miraculous victory over the vast Muslim hordes—which consisted of 800,000 infantrymen, and 100,000 horsemen.

Having governed her people for twenty-nine years with apostolic grace, the Holy Tamara fell ill at the castle of Agarani. In her final moments, she commended her kingdom and her soul to Christ, the Eternal King, and peacefully fell asleep in the Lord on the 18th of January, 1213. Her holy relics were translated to the monastery of Gelati, the burial place of her royal ancestors.

Troparion, Tone 4

O wondrous among the Saints, right-believing Queen Tamara, thou who upon high rocks didst build up sanctuaries for prayer unto God; by thy prayers thou didst strengthen the armies of the Christ-loving Georgian nation, and by thy right hand didst cast down the hosts of the Hagarenes. Through her intercessions, O Christ God, save our souls.

Kontakion, Tone Plagal 4 (Tone 8)

Casting off womanly weakness by the valour of thy spirit, and surpassing all kings and sages, thou didst govern thy kingdom well. Thou didst manifest thyself as a pillar of piety and a protectress of the Church, O holy, right-believing Queen Tamara. Now thou dost rejoice with the heavenly powers, protecting those who honour thy memory.