Jean Richard - An aid to Sulkhan Saba or an opportunist?

ანოტაცია

An examination of accounts documenting Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani’s diplomatic journey through Europe consistently foregrounds the figure of a French Catholic clergyman, Father Jean Richard, who appears to have served as a close and constant companion to the Georgian ambassador throughout the mission. This missionary, affiliated with the Société des missions étrangères
de Paris, emerges at the outset of the journey and recedes from the historical record upon the ambassador’s return to Georgia — a pattern that invites critical scrutiny. While Richard demonstrably positioned himself as an indispensable intermediary, the precise nature of his motivations and the extent to which his assistance was genuinely altruistic remain open questions. The present study draws upon Jean Richard’s correspondence, preserved in archival collections in Paris and Rome, to reconstruct the French missionary’s objectives and to situate his engagement with Orbeliani within the broader context of Catholic ecclesiastical politics. Particular attention is paid to the strategic significance that Georgia held on the missionary field contested between the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide and the Société des missions étrangères de Paris-two competing institutional actors whose rivalry
fundamentally shaped Catholic missionary activity in the Caucasus during the early eighteenth century. Through this archival and historiographical analysis, the study seeks to illuminate how Georgia functioned not merely as a site of genuine religious outreach, but as a calculated asset in the geopolitical and ecclesiastical rivalries of the period.