Holy Great Martyrs David and Constantine, Princes of Argveti (+740)
The holy martyrs David and Constantine Mkheidze were princes of Argveti, “learned in the old and new law, true believers, and experienced and valiant in the ranks and in battles”.
David was “fair and white of body, with chestnut hair, comely of figure and thick of beard”; Constantine was “comely of figure, with chestnut hair… his beard just showing”. When the brothers learned of the invasion of the lawless Murvan the Deaf, they asked the Lord for help, gathered an army, and appointed for the people increased prayers and vigils.
The lawless fell upon the Georgians encamped by Mount Persati. With God’s help the Georgians won. The angry Murvan the Deaf gathered a countless army, and the Arabs laid everything waste. The surviving people took refuge in the forests. In an unequal battle the brothers David and Constantine were taken captive.
The captives were brought before Murvan the Deaf. The lawless commander began to mock the fettered Christians, and they answered: “Thy laughter and boasting over us are empty and vain, for thy glory is but for a moment and will soon vanish; for it is not for thy worthiness that thy victory over us has come about, but for our sins, because we transgressed the commandments of God, have you been multiplied over us, that God might chastise us by your hand, lawless and godless as you are.” At this bold answer Murvan was enraged and ordered the saints to be tortured.
Amazed at the courage of David and Constantine, Murvan wished to win the brothers over by flattery. He said to David: “I have heard of thy valour, and so I counsel thee to leave the empty and vain words of your madness and submit to the law of Muhammad.” As a reward he promised him honours and the rank of spasalar. Saint David signed himself with the cross and answered: “God forbid that we should leave the light and follow the darkness: our God enlightened us when He sent His Son into the world, and He became man for us and took upon Himself the whole dispensation: crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension; and He will come again to judge the living and the dead. The Saviour sent His disciples into all the world to preach. Two of His disciples preached among us and turned us from the service of idols. We, taught and enlightened by Him, serve no other law, but are ready for beatings, torments, fire, water, sword and death for Christ.” Then he exposed the Qur’an and the law of the Hagarenes: “Muhammad turned you from the service of fire, but could not make you know God; so you are like those shipwrecked men who were saved in the middle of the sea, but drowned when they reached the shore.”
Enraged by David’s answer, Murvan turned to Constantine and wished to win him over, but Constantine too fearlessly confessed the Holy Trinity: “As my lord David has testified and confessed… so I too testify and confess, for we have been taught one law and one faith, and I believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and for Him I will die.”
The furious Murvan ordered the brothers to be weakened with hunger and thirst. Ten days later, after “torments of many kinds”, he sent magi and soothsayers to the saints of Argveti, but the martyrs again fearlessly confessed Christ.
The brothers were led out to the bank of the river near the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian (below what was later the “Chain Bridge”); they were cruelly beaten, then their hands and feet were bound, stones were tied to their necks, and they were thrown into the river.
Before their death the brothers prayed: “O Lord God Jesus Christ, Son and Word of God the Father, as Thou hast heard our petitions and made us worthy of martyrdom for Thy holy name, so now too hear the prayers and petitions of us Thy servants; and as we have kept our bodies incorrupt and undefiled for Thy holy name, so after our martyrdom keep our bodies incorrupt and undestroyed; and may Thy mercy swiftly reach those who shall call upon Thy holy name by our name, and grant them forgiveness of their sins, and make the members of our bodies healers of every disease and infirmity, to the glory of Thine all-hymned name.”
A voice was heard from heaven confirming that their petition had been heard. Frightened by the heavenly voice, the torturers fled.
At night a miracle took place: three pillars of light came down from heaven to earth, and the light lit up the whole place. By God’s will “the stones were stripped from the necks” of the martyrs, and the holy bodies floated up to the surface of the water. The princes’ servants brought the bodies to the bank. Suddenly they heard a voice coming from the pillar of light: “Take up the bodies of these holy martyrs and carry them through the forest towards the east, and where the day dawns for you, there bury the holy bodies of the martyrs; for there is the command of the Lord God, that where the Annunciation of Him who Is is kept, there the bodies of the holy martyrs too shall be buried.”
The astonished servants carried the saints’ bodies all night, and at last brought them to the top of a rock rising in the gorge of Tsqaltsitela. At that place there had once stood a church of the Annunciation, which Murvan the Deaf had destroyed. Below the ruins of the church they saw an empty tomb in the rock, and it was in that tomb that they laid the martyrs. From then on the heroes’ grave and its surroundings were called Motsameta (the place of the martyrs).
For three hundred years the incorrupt bodies of David and Constantine rested in that tomb. In the first half of the eleventh century King Bagrat III rebuilt the church destroyed by the Saracens and moved into it the martyred heroes, hidden until that time. The incorrupt and unharmed bodies of the saints lay in the tomb head to foot, and worked many miraculous healings, “even as they themselves had asked of God”.
But the martyrdom of the Mkheidze brothers, it turned out, did not end with this. A new martyrdom awaited them yet…
Almost twelve centuries passed, and a raging enemy invaded Georgia again — this time the red army of the God-fighters come from the north, led by leaders worse than Murvan the Deaf, this time former Georgians and former Christians. After laying eastern Georgia waste, the “red horde” crossed into western Georgia and, like Murvan the Deaf, “slaughtered and ravaged everything”. The commander of the army of the Lord’s enemies stirred up by dark forces, Sergo Orjonikidze, added a new and terrible “victory” to his “glorious exploits”, and so proved once more whose will he was carrying out in his own homeland. Satan, put to shame twelve centuries before by the Mkheidze brothers, took his revenge on the martyrs again. By order of “Iron Sergo” the incorrupt bodies of the hero brothers who had given themselves for homeland and faith were dug out of the tomb and dragged along roads and streets… and then, as at their first martyrdom, their incorrupt remains were thrown into the water… Through the truly astonishing devotion of the local Christians, the saints’ bodies escaped final destruction and, by the Lord’s will, returned once more to their eternal resting place as intercessors for all the faithful.
