Saint Kostanti-Kakhay

Konstanti Kakhay or Konstanti Kakhi (Georgian: კონსტანტი კახაჲ; კონსტანტი კახი) (768 – November 10, 853) was a Christian Georgian nobleman from Kartli, who was seized captive by the Abbasid general Bugha al-Kabir during his 853 expedition into the Caucasus. He was subsequently put to death, at the age of 85, for refusing to convert to Islam. This made Kostanti a subject of the contemporaneous hagiography and a saint of the Georgian Orthodox Church. Kakhay's capture is also documented in a Georgian inscription from the Ateni Sioni church and his death as a martyr is mentioned by the 9th-10th century Armenian chronicler Tovma Artsruni. The Georgian church commemorates him on November 10 (O.S.). Much of Kostanti-Kakhay's biography is known from the hagiographic work The Life and Passion of Kostanti-Kakhay, the full title of which is "the Life and Passion of the Holy Martyr Kostanti the Georgian, who was Martyred by Jafar, King of Babylonians" (ცხორებაჲ და წამებაჲ წმიდისა მოწამისა კოსტანტი ქართველისაჲ, რომელი იწამა ბაბილონელთა მეფისა ჯაფარის მიერ, cxorebaj da c'amebaj c'midisa moc'amisa k'ost'ant'isi kartvelisaj, romeli ic'ama babiloelta mepisa dzaparis mier). Its anonymous author, apparently a monk, identifies himself as a contemporary of Kostanti, saying that the martyr "lived during our time", when Theodora, the Byzantine empress who opposed iconoclasm, reigned as a "servant of God". In the same passage, the author also mentions Theodora's son Michael III (r. 842-67). In general, the Life and Passion of Kostanti-Kakhay reflects the rise of Byzantine cultural and political influence and of Georgian nationalism. The text incorporates many other narratives and contains several biblical allusions. Its opening phrases are a literal translation from George of Alexandria's Life of Saint John Chrysostom (c. 620), a text otherwise unknown in Georgian until 968.