Commemorated on October 31
In 1227 Sultan Jalal al-Din of Khwarazm and his army of
Turkmen attacked Georgia. On the first day of the battle the Georgian army
valorously warded off the invaders as they were approaching Tbilisi. That
night, however, a group of Persians who were living in Tbilisi secretly opened
the gates and summoned the enemy army into the city.
According to one manuscript in which this most terrible day
in Georgian history was described: “Words are powerless to convey the
destruction that the enemy wrought: tearing infants from their mothers’
breasts, they beat their heads against the bridge, watching as their eyes
dropped from their skulls....”
A river of blood flowed through the city. The Turkmen
castrated young children, raped women, and stabbed mothers to death over their
children’s lifeless bodies. The whole city shuddered at the sound of wailing
and lamentation. The river and streets of the city were filled with death.
The sultan ordered that the cupola of Sioni Cathedral be
taken down and replaced by his vile throne. And at his command the icons of the
Theotokos and our Savior were carried out of Sioni Cathedral and placed at the
center of the bridge across the Mtkvari River. The invaders goaded the people
to the bridge, ordering them to cross it and spit on the holy icons. Those who
betrayed the Christian Faith and mocked the icons were spared their lives,
while the Orthodox confessors were beheaded.
One hundred thousand Georgians sacrificed their lives to
venerate the holy icons. One hundred thousand severed heads and headless bodies
were carried by the bloody current down the Mtkvari River.
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