09 Works, Today, June 21st, is Saint Luarsab's day, his story in Paintings #172

Mikhail Sabinin

King Luarsab II of Kartli, c. 1880s
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Mikhail (Gobron) Sabinin ((1845–1900) was a Russo-Georgian monk, historian of the Georgian Orthodox Church and icon painter.

He was born to the Russian priest from Tver, Pavel Sabinin, and a Georgian woman. Educated at the Tiflis gymnasium in the 1860s, he then attended St. Petersburg Theologian Academy and attained to a magister degree for his work History of the Georgian Church until the End of the 6th Century, the first comprehensive treatment of the subject produced in Russian. 

He travelled in several regions of Georgia, studying monuments of Christian architecture, copying frescos and icons, recording legends and collecting manuscripts. In St. Petersburg, he was tonsured a monk and given the name Gobron after a 10th-century Georgian saint. In 1882, he published The Paradise of Georgia, a voluminous lithographed edition of biographies of important Georgian Orthodox Christian saints. In the 1880s, he served at the famous Iviron Monastery on Mount Athos. In 1882 he published also The Passion of Eustathius of Mtskheta.


In 1898, he clashed with the office of Russian exarchate at Tiflis over his criticism of Russification and was removed from Georgia to Moscow where he died of pneumonia on May 10, 1900. More on Mikhail Sabinin

Luarsab II the Holy Martyr (1592 – 1622), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a king of Kartli (eastern Georgia) from 1606 to 1615. He is known for his martyr’s death at the hands of the Persian shah Abbas I. 

Unknown artist

 Detail: Abbas I of Persia, c. 17th century

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Luarsab ascended the Kartlian throne at the age of 14 after his father, Giorgi X, suddenly died in 1606. During his minority, the government was actually run by a royal tutor Shadiman Baratashvili. It was when Abbas I succeeded in driving the Ottoman armies out of eastern Georgia, leaving a Persian force in Tbilisi, and confirming Luarsab as king of Kartli.

Unknown artist

Battle of Tashiscar, In June 1609

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The battle of Tashiskar took place in June 1609 between the Kingdom of Kartli and the Ottomans and the Crimean Tatars called the Wolves. Despite about 60,000 enemies, the Georgian army under the command of Giorgi Saakadze won the battle.

Unknown artist

Battle of Tashiscar, In June 1609

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The Ottomans attempted to remove Luarsab, sending in Georgia a large army, only to be destroyed by the Georgian general Giorgi Saakadze at the Battle of Tashiskari, 1609. After this victory, Luarsab was granted again the control of the citadel of Tbilisi and the shah married his sister Tinatin, 1610. Late in 1611, Luarsab himself married Makrine, a sister of a lower-class noble Saakadze. 

Niko Pirosmani, (1862–1918)

Giorgi Saakadze, c. 1913

Sighnaghi Museum

Niko Pirosmani (1862–1918), was a Georgian naïve painter who posthumously rose to prominence. Relatively poor for most of his life, he worked a variety of ordinary jobs. His rustic, everyday scenes are celebrated today for their depiction of the Georgia of Pirosmani's lifetime, and he has become one of the country's most beloved artistic figures.

Pirosmani was born in the Georgian village of Mirzaani. He was later orphaned and left in the care of his two elder sisters, Mariam and Pepe. He moved with them to Tbilisi in 1870. In 1872, while living in a little apartment not far from Tbilisi railway station, he worked as a servant to wealthy families and learned to read and write Russian and Georgian. In 1876, he returned to Mirzaani and worked as a herdsman.

Pirosmani gradually taught himself to paint. One of his specialties was painting directly into black oilcloth. In 1882 he opened a painting workshop, where they made signboards. Although his paintings had some local popularity his relationship with professional artists remained uneasy.


In April 1918, he died in the 1918 flu pandemic. More on Niko Pirosmani

The great nobles of the realm led by Shadiman Baratashvili convinced the king that Saakadze was a Persian agent seeking a royal crown. 

Unknown artist

Shadiman Baratashvili

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In 1614, Saakadze avenged Luarsab and his nobles by aiding Shah Abbas in the invasion of Georgia which brought Luarsab’s reign to an end, but dissuaded the Iranians from committing atrocities in Kartli after the nation surrendered. 

They induced Luarsab to divorce Makrine and forced Giorgi Saakadze,the Grand Mouravi, a Georgian politician and military commander who played an important but contradictory role in the politics of the early 17th-century Georgia, into exile to Persia. Shah Abbas indeed demanded more loyalty and obedience from the Georgians and encouraged a khan of Kazakh Mohammad to trouble the Kartlian lands. 

Unknown artist

Teimuraz I of Kakheti

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In 1612, Luarsab had Mohammad Khan assassinated and allied with another Georgian monarch, Teimuraz I of Kakheti to counter an anticipated Persian aggression. 

Early in 1614, a large Persian army invaded Kakheti, destroying several settlements on its way, and moved into Kartli. 

Teramo Castelli, (1597–1659)

 George III of Imereti (1605–1639)

Fresco of Levan II – Image: mural

Teramo Cristoforo Castelli (1597 – 3 October 1659) was an Italian Theatine missionary, born of a noble family, who spent twenty-two years in Georgia from 1632 to 1654. He left seven volumes of travel notes and pen-and-ink sketches and other illustrations, mainly of the people and landscapes of Georgia. This manuscript was discovered and delivered to the municipal library of Palermo by the priest Gioacchino di Marzo in 1878 and brought to the attention of scholars of Georgia by Michel Tamarati in 1910. More on Teramo Castelli

Luarsab and Teimuraz fled to a western Georgian Kingdom of Imereti. George III of Imereti refused to surrender the refugees. Abbas threatened Kartli with ruin, promising that if Luarsab submitted, he would conclude a peace. 

In October 1615, Luarsab surrendered to save his kingdom from being wiped out, and, refusing to convert to Islam, was incarcerated first in Astarabad and then somewhere near Shiraz. The Georgians attempted to free their king through the mediation of Tsar Mikhail I of Russia. However, the negotiations yielded no results and, in 1622, Luarsab was executed on the orders of the shah at the fortress of Qal‘eh-ye Golāb in southwest Iran. More on Luarsab II

Unknown artist

Holy Fathers of Mount Athos, whom the Orthodox Church commemorates today, on Sunday, 21 June

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