PM commemorates Georgia’s “hero ancestors”, One Hundred Thousand Georgian Martyrs

Georgian prime minister Irakli Garibashvili on Sunday addressed the Georgian people marking the commemoration day of the One Hundred Thousand Martyrs of Tbilisi, the government administration said.

Garibashvili said this day has been one of the “most outstanding events in the history of Georgia and the world”, as it showed an “amazing dedication” to faith and homeland, with Georgians sacrificing their lives to defend their faith. 

The memory of our hero ancestors has defined the spiritual values ​​of our people for centuries, strengthened our faith, and will always be so”, the head of the government said.

One Hundred Thousand Martyrs are saints of the Georgian Orthodox Church, who were put to death, according to the 14th-century anonymous Georgian Chronicle of a Hundred Years, for not renouncing Christianity by the Khwarezmid sultan Jalal ad-Din upon his capture of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi in 1226. 

It is said that 100,000 Georgians were killed that day, and one hundred thousand severed heads and headless bodies were carried by the bloody current down the Mtkvari River. Every year a litany is held on the Metekhi Bridge, led by Georgian Patriarch Ilia II, to honour the martyrs.