death_date death_place birth_place feast_day imagesize venerated_in birth_date titles image article_title name
475 tsurtavi , georgia armenia october 17 200px georgian eastern catholic churches orthodox church eastern orthodox church armenian apostolic church 440 martyr queen shushanik.jpg saint shushanik
 saint shushanik -lrb- susanna -rrb-
saint shushanik

saint shushanik -lrb- , -rrb- -lrb- born vardeni mamikonian c. 440-475 -rrb- was an early medieval christian armenian martyr who was murdered by her husband varsken in the town of tsurtavi , georgia .
since she died defending her right to profess christianity , she is regarded as a martyr .
her martyrdom is described in her confessor jacob 's hagiographic work .
the hagiography details extensive resistance to forms of imprisonment , isolation , torture and cruelty by shushanik .
shushanik was a daughter of the armenian supreme military commander -lrb- sparapet -rrb- vartan mamikonian and married to the prominent mihranid feudal lord -lrb- `` pitiakhsh '' -rrb- varsken , son of arshusha ii .
varsken was in opposition to vakhtang i gorgasali , king of kartli , and took a pro-persian position , renouncing christianity and adopting zoroastrianism .
he killed his spouse after she refused to submit to his order to abandon her christian faith .
varsken himself was put to death by king vakhtang in 483 .
shushanik has been canonized by the georgian orthodox church and is venerated by the armenian apostolic church .
her feast day is celebrated on october 17 .
