Queen Ketevan of Kakheti, sent in 1514 by her son King as a negotiator to Shah Abbas, had effectively surrendered herself as an honorary hostage in a failed attempt to prevent Kakheti from being attacked by the Iranian armies.

She has been held in Shiraz for several years until Abbas, in an act of revenge for the recalcitrance of Teimuraz, orders the queen to renounce Christianity, and upon her refusal, has her tortured to death with red-hot pincers in September 1624.

Four months later, portions of her relics will be clandestinely taken by the St. Augustine Portuguese Catholic missionaries, eyewitnesses of her martyrdom, to Georgia where they will be interred at the Alaverdi Cathedral.