Three Hundred Aragvians

The Three Hundred Aragvians were a detachment of Georgian highlanders from the valley of the Aragvi river who fell at the battle of Krtsanisi on 11 September 1795, defending Tbilisi against the Persian invasion. The Georgian Orthodox Church canonized them as holy martyrs in 2008. They are commemorated on 11 (24) September.

The battle of Krtsanisi

The detachment was made up of people of the Aragvi valley, whence its name. It took part in the fighting against the Persians during Agha Mohammad Khan's invasion of Georgia in 1795, and distinguished itself especially on 11 September 1795 in the battle on the plain of Krtsanisi near the Georgian capital and in the fighting in the streets of the city. The Georgian army, led by the aged King Heraclius II, was defeated by an overwhelmingly larger enemy: five thousand Georgians against thirty-⁠five thousand Persians and their allies.

According to the Georgian chronicles, the Aragvians swore to fight to the death and kept their oath. Most were killed in the fighting, giving Heraclius and the rest of the army the chance to withdraw. The capital was sacked.

Memory and canonization

They were first called heroes by Prince Teimuraz, who took part in the events of 1795 as a teenager. Georgian writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, among them Grigol Orbeliani, Ilia Chavchavadze, Iakob Gogebashvili and Vazha-⁠Pshavela, sang of them as heroes of the nation. In 1959-1961 a monument was raised in Tbilisi where remains of the graves of the fallen were discovered, and a park, a bridge over the Kura and a metro station bear their name.

On 27 June 2008 the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church, under Catholicos-⁠Patriarch Ilia II, decided to canonize the three hundred Aragvians, clergy and laity who fell in the battle of Krtsanisi in 1795, as holy martyrs. It ordered that their icon, troparion, life and hymns be written and that their commemoration be set on 11 (24) September. The day is called Krtsanisoba.