Theatine Missionaries Against the Slave Trade in Georgia

Abstract

In the first half of the 17th century, Theatine missionaries, who came from Italy to spread the Catholic faith in Georgia, felt very bad that in that era, thousands of people of different ages and sexes, including children, were sold to traders from Ottomans. The missionaries did a lot to convince the local nobles to stop this activity, which was a great sin. They called on the princes of the principalities of Western Georgia to prohibit the sale of Christian youths in the Ottoman Empire.

Missionaries also tried to save people, especially children, from being sold by various means. For this purpose, they often gave shelter to those threatened with being sold abroad.

Georgian Christians doomed to be sold, who could not be saved by the missionaries, were advised to firmly maintain their faith, even if they were affected by threats or cunning.

Although such efforts by missionaries had some results in individual cases, the existence of the captive slave trade in the region had strong social, political and economic foundations at the time, and its eradication was beyond the capabilities of the missionaries.

The presented article gives many examples of the actions of the Theatine missionaries against the slave trade based on the reports of the same missionaries, such as Arcangelo Lamberti, Cristoforo Castelli, Giuseppe Giudice, Pietro Avitabile.