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Tetri Giorgi (Georgian:თეთრი გიორგი, "White George") is one of the local names ofChristianSaint George inGeorgia, specifically in the country's northeastern highland districts.
Tetri Giorgi was used as a national symbol, as part ofGeorgia's coat of arms in the years 1918–1921 and 1991–2004. The name of Tetri Giorgi has also been adopted by several political and non-political organizations, significantly by ananti-SovietGeorgian émigré group in Europe and a 1990s paramilitary unit.
Saint George was venerated in Georgia since Late Antiquity.[1]TheexonymGeorgia was applied to the country from the 11th or 12th century,probably by false etymology, but inspired by the great popularity of the saint there.[2][3]
The cult ofTetri Giorgi is associated with theKakheti region in particular.It issyncretistic, combining the Christian saint with the cult of a local lunar deity.[4]
A feast day of Tetri Giorgi (tetrigiorgoba) separate from the feast day of the Christian saint was once marked annually on 14 August, when many pilgrims from the eastern Georgian provinces attended an overnight feast at the saint's chief shrine – a 14th-century church overlooking the village Atsquri in what is nowAkhmeta Municipality, Kakheti.[5]
In May 1918, theDemocratic Republic of Georgia – newly independent from theRussian Empire – chose the equestrian depiction of Tetri Giorgi as a centerpiece of itscoat of arms. But the image was rendered more secular as its Christian symbolism was disfavored by Georgia'sSocial-Democratic government, recallsRevaz Gabashvili, a critic of the contemporary Georgian government.[6] In this design, Tetri Giorgi is shown as an armed horseman below a depiction of "the Seven Celestials" (the sevenclassical planets).
This coat of arms was in use until theSoviet takeover in 1921 and again in post-Soviet Georgia from 1991 to 2004.
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