Holy Queen Tamara Icons and Images - Baptism Gifst

The Holy Queen Tamara came from the Bagratid dynasty (Bagration) and was the only daughter of Tsar George III. When she was 18 years old, George III crowned her in the kingdom, and after his death in 1184, the 24-year-old queen Tamara became the sovereign ruler of the Georgian kingdom. Distinguished by high piety, intelligence and beauty, the queen Tamara wisely governed the state, having won the love of the whole people. Contemporaries called it the king ("mepe"), and not the queen ("dadopali"). "I am the father of the witches and the judge of widows," she said.

In her reign there was not a single instance of the death penalty or corporal punishment; in her government she was strictly guided by the Evangelical commandments. Between the Church and the state there was agreement. Under its high authority, the holy queen Tamara managed to unite the mountaineers of Abkhazia, Imeretia and Kakheti. She herself in military armor went ahead of her troops against the Muslims and fearlessly struck them. In all the campaigns she was patronized by the holy Archangel Michael; his image was seen by Saracen prisoners over the throne of Tamara. The rebellious Muslim mountaineers humbled before her name and whole tribes received Holy Baptism. So great was the confidence of Muslims in her, that they agreed to give the keys to the beleaguered city of Kars only to her.

Following the example of his great-grandfather, the holy king David the Renewer, the holy queen Tamara built temples and monasteries. Until now, on the inaccessible rocks of the Caucasus, churches and crosses, erected in her reign, have been preserved; the same shrines are on the coast of the Black and Caspian seas. The reign of the holy, blessed Queen Tamara became the "golden age" in the history of Georgia. She was the patroness of writing and literature.