Martyr Luarsab II King of Kartli

Luarsab II was a king of Kartli, in eastern Georgia, and a member of the Bagrationi dynasty who reigned from 1606 to 1615. His reign fell during a period of repeated Persian and Ottoman incursions into the Georgian kingdoms. He is venerated by the Georgian Orthodox Church as a martyr for having refused, throughout a long captivity in Persia, to renounce Christ and accept Islam. He is commemorated on June 21 individually and jointly with St Archil II on January 28.

He was the son of King George X, who according to the tradition was poisoned by Shah Abbas I of Persia, and Luarsab succeeded to the throne while still a youth. The synaxarion relates that in 1609 he led a Georgian force against a far larger Turkish invading army near Kvenadkotsi and routed it, having prepared for battle with prayer and communion. The victory alarmed Shah Abbas, who thereafter sought his destruction; as a measure of peace Luarsab was compelled to give his sister Helen in marriage to the shah.

When Persian forces invaded Kartli, Shah Abbas threatened the kingdom with ruin and promised peace if the king submitted. To spare Kartli and its churches further devastation, Luarsab surrendered himself, withdrawing first westward into Imereti and then placing himself in the shah's hands around 1615. Treated well at first, he was imprisoned once it became clear he would not abandon his faith. By tradition he spent some seven years in chains, first at Astarabad and then at the fortress of Gulab-Kala near Shiraz, enduring torments and pressure to convert. He was put to death in 1622, strangled by order of the shah; two of his retainers were martyred with him, and Christians buried their bodies.