India hands over relics to Georgi






 External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Saturday at- tended the formal handing- over ceremony of the holy relics of 17th century queen St. Ketevan to Georgia, near- ly 16 years after they were found in Goa, describing such historical objects as a “bridge of faith” between the two countries. Mr. Jaishankar is on a two- day visit to Georgia, a stra- tegically important country situated at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West- ern Asia. “Today is a special day, not only for Georgia but also for India. I have the honour to hand over the holy relics of St. Queen Ketevan to the people of Georgia,” Mr. Jaish- ankar said at the ceremony at the Sameba Holy Trinity

Cathedral. “I consider my- self blessed that the purpose of my first visit to Georgia is such an auspicious one,” he said. Mr. Jaishankar handed ov- er the relics of St. Queen Ke- tevan to the government and the people of Georgia at a ce- remony in Tbilisi in the pre- sence of Beatitude Ilia II,

Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, and Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili. St. Queen Ketevan was a 17th century Georgian Queen. Her relics were found in 2005 at the St. Au- gustine Convent in Old Goa, on the basis of medieval Por- tuguese records, people aware of the matter said.

“The presence of some of the relics in India and Geor- gia is a bridge of faith bet- ween our two countries. I hope that in the coming years, the people of both of our nations will traverse that bridge, of spirituality as much as of friendship,” Mr. Jaishanakar said. The relics are believed to have been brought to Goa in 1627 and interred in St. Au- gustine Complex. At the instance of the Ar- chaeological Survey of India (ASI), the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biol- ogy, Hyderabad, carried out DNA analysis that confirmed its authenticity, the people cited above said. In 2017, at the request of the Georgian government, India sent the relics to Geor- gia for an exhibition for six months

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