David and Tirichan were the sons of pious Armenian parents Vardan and Tagine. After the death of their father, their uncle, the pagan Theodosius, plotted to appropriate their inheritance and began to persuade Tagine, David, and Tirichan to embrace paganism. Tagine fled with her children to Southern Georgia. Theodosius, fearing that the children would grow up and reclaim their inheritance, tracked them down and killed the brothers who were tending cattle in the mountains. According to the testimony of the hagiographer, the murderer was immediately blinded. Mourning for her children, Tagine, feeling compassion for her brother, anointed his eyes with the earth that had absorbed David's blood, and Theodosius regained his sight and confessed Christ. That night, the bodies of the martyrs were illuminated by light. Theodosius erected a church in the name of David, and the relics of Tirichan were taken to Armenia by the governor Divri, where a church was built in honor of St. Tirichan.
The martyrdom of David and Tirichan has been preserved in a single Georgian manuscript from the 10th century, copied in the Iveron Monastery on Mount Athos. The Armenian version of the martyrdom has not been found.
The Armenian Church does not venerate David and Tirichan, which is associated with the fact that the martyrdom was possibly created by a Chalcedonian author in Tao-Klarjeti. It is likely that the hagiographic monument was created in the Georgian language and therefore entered the calendar of the Georgian Church, and later David and Tirichan began to be venerated as Georgian saints.
