Elizbar of Ksani

Holy Martyr Elizbar of Ksani was duke (eristavi) of Ksani in Georgia and one of the leaders of the Georgian Kakhetian uprising against Persian rule, who died a martyr in the year 1662. He was a cousin of Shalva, Duke of Ksani.

After the suppression of the uprising, Elizbar, together with Shalva and Bidzina Cholokashvili, went to the Shah of Persia to ask forgiveness, to prevent a new enemy invasion. By the will of King Vakhtang V of Kartli, who had accepted Islam and was known as Shah-⁠Nawaz, the three were handed over to Shah Abbas II. Brought bound, they answered the usual questions by saying they were Christians; no one could change their faith, neither by promises nor by threats or torments. The Shah sent them to the former ruler of Kakheti, Sultan Aldaran, who lived then at Isfahan. Seeing them unshaken, the sultan ordered that after cruel torments Elizbar and Shalva be beheaded, before the eyes of Bidzina. Bidzina was dressed in women's clothes in disgrace, led on a donkey, and then tortured and beheaded.

The bodies of Elizbar and Shalva were later brought home and buried at Ikorta Monastery, the ancestral monastery of the Dukes of Ksani. They are commemorated on 18 September (1 October by the civil calendar in the Georgian Church) and in the Synaxis of the Alan Saints.