Born in Georgia, killed in Persia, found in Goa
She was the Queen of Georgia in difficult times; she was the prisoner of the Shah of Persia in an even more volatile era; she was publicly executed in Persia after she refused to convert to Islam; a devout Christian, she was bestowed sainthood by the Pope way back in the 17th century. Today, she lies buried, unknown and unsung in the ruins of a Goa church, on the same street as the much more venerated St Xavier. Four centuries later, Queen Ketevan's nation is clamouring for recognition to their toughest icon, an icon who stood tall in the face of Islamic expansionism and defeated all efforts by the Shah to change her religion. Thanks to the efforts of Georgia's honorary consul in India, K S Dhingra, a top-level team of experts from faraway Georgia is all set to land in Goa in a bid to trace the remains of their saint and Queen who is said to be buried in the St Augustine chapel in Goa since 1622. legend goes that after the Iranian Shah Abbas I plundered Georgia, he massac