Ketevan Bagration of Mukhrani | |
---|---|
Born |
Talence, France |
20 July 1954
Spouse(s) | Prince Raimondo Umberto Maria Orsini d'Aragona |
Issue
Georgiana Maria Orsini
Lelio Nicolò Orsini Luisa Eleonora Orsini Dorothea Orsini |
|
Father | Prince Constantine Bagration of Mukhrani |
Mother | Monique Pauliac |
Ketevan Bagration of Mukhrani also known as Khétévane Bagrationi–Orsini, Ketevan Bagrationi–Mukhraneli, or Ketevan Bagrationi–Mukhranbatoni (Georgian: ქეთევან ბაგრატიონ–მუხრანელი) (born July 20, 1954) is a French-born Italian–Georgian public figure and diplomat, who was Georgia's ambassador to the Holy See from 2005 to 2014. She has a dual French and Georgian citizenship.
Khétévane [Catherine] Bagration de Moukhrani was born in Talence, France, in 1954. Her father was Prince Constantine Bagration of Mukhrani (1915–1992), a Georgian émigré and scion of Constantine IV, the last Prince of Mukhrani, who descended from a branch of the Bagrationi royal dynasty. Her mother Monique Pauliac (born 1926) married Prince Constantine at Villenave-d'Ornon in 1953. Princess Khétévane also has a brother, Alexandré Bagration de Moukhrani (born 1956). Her distant cousins of the Spanish branch of the Mukhrani entertain claims to the throne of Georgia.
Khétévane Bagration de Moukhrani has a degree in philology. She first visited her ancestral homeland in 1975 on a scholarship from Tbilisi State University. In 1978 Princess Khétévane married the Italian aristocrat Prince Raimondo Orsini d'Aragona and moved to Rome. Since 1991, she has overseen a series of Italian–Georgian cultural events and directed several humanitarian projects for post-Soviet Georgia. She was also involved in the Italian–Georgian diplomacy. Bagration helped organize the first official visit of the President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze to Italy in 1997 and the first ever visit of the Pope John Paul II to Georgia in 1999. She became the first Honorary Citizen of Georgia in 1995 and was granted the dual citizenship by Georgia in 2004. On March 9, 2005, the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili appointed her as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to the Holy See. She served on this position until 2014.