Holy Queen Dinar (X)

The holy Queen Dinar. Russian church chronicles have preserved information about “Queen Dinara of Iberia”, who rendered great service to Christianity. Scholars argued for a long time over which historical figure of Georgia the Russian church tradition had in mind. It was thought that the sources meant the holy King Tamar, but the information points to the period before Tamar. It is noteworthy that “The Life of Kartli” preserves information about Queen Dinar of Hereti, who with her son Ishkhanik restored the Orthodox faith to the numerous population of Hereti, that is Albania, and freed them from the church yoke of the heretical Monophysites in the tenth century.

The greater part of Hereti, that is Albania, had from ancient times been settled by Kartvelian tribes, and so the ancient sources called it too Iberia and counted it part of the country (Iberia) stretching from the Black Sea to the Caspian. The warlike Slavic-Russian tribes which, according to Moses of Kalankatuk, sometimes raided the southern lands and came into Transcaucasia through the Caspian, that is the Derbent, gates, encountered the Iberian (Her) population; and so it seems that it was they who carried the information about Dinar, queen of the Hers or Iberians, to Russia. And indeed, the Georgian Church paid great honour to the holy Queen Dinar. Had it not been for her devoted labour, the numerous population of eastern Transcaucasia would have swelled the ranks of the heretical Monophysites, who held sway here with the backing of the Persians.

In the palace of the Moscow Kremlin, on the north wall of the Golden Chamber of the Tsaritsa, the holy Queen Dinara is painted riding a white horse, the vanquisher of her enemies.