Borena of Alania

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Princess Borena of Alania, sister of the Alan king Durgulel “the Great”, was Queen consort of Georgia, as the second wife of Bagrat IV (1027-1072).

Bagrat married Borena, in the early 1030s, after the death of his first wife, Helene (niece of the Byzantine emperor Romanus III Argyros). This was just one of the several intermarriages between the medieval Georgian Bagratids and their natural allies (and sometime vassals), the royal house of Alania.

Bagrat and Borena had three children:

Borena is primarily known as a patron and promoter of Georgian Orthodox culture and monastic life. She sponsored the construction of the Georgian Kapata Monastery on Mount Sion at Jerusalem. She is frequently identified with the Borena who was an author of a passionate and moving hymn to Virgin Mary, which is found as an inscription on the Theotokos icon from that time (now preserved at the Lenjer Church in highland Svaneti).

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[edit] Reference

  • Rayfield, D (2000), The Literature of Georgia: A History, Routlege (UK), ISBN 0-7007-1163-5, page 28