The name of the patriarch is associated with the recognition of the restored autocephaly and ancient patriarchal dignity of the Georgian Orthodox Church. This was done by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1990. With the blessing of Ilia II, the Bible, theological collections, books, magazines were published in modern Georgian; newspapers were founded. In 1988, under his leadership, the Mtskheta Theological Seminary was moved to Tbilisi and the Tbilisi Theological Academy was established; theological schools were opened in different parts of Georgia: in Batumi, Akhaltsikhe and Kutaisi.
A theological school and a gymnasium were established in Khulo; after centuries, the Gelati Theological Academy and the Gelati Academy of Sciences were restored under the auspices of the Church. Over the course of twenty years, the number of dioceses of the Georgian Church has increased from 15 to 33, monasteries – to 53, clergy – to 1,000, new saints have been canonized, the Holy Trinity Cathedral has been built.
A period of mourning has been declared in Georgia. By order of the government, state flags on administrative buildings throughout the country have been lowered to half-mast. Patriarch Ilia II died on March 17, 2026 at the age of 93. The official statement was made at the Caucasus Medical Center by the vicar of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Shio. “Ilia II was a man of epochal importance, a huge loss for the world Orthodox Church,” Metropolitan Shio said of the patriarch when he announced the news of his death to the public.
The body of the Georgian Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II was carried in a funeral procession from the patriarchal residence and laid to rest in the Holy Trinity Cathedral. In the coming days, a worship service will be held there before his mortal remains, and on Sunday, March 22, the patriarch will be buried in the Sioni Church (one of the most ancient Georgian churches, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and the patriarchal residence), as was his wish. Throughout the day, believers from all over the country gathered in the Holy Trinity Patriarchal Church.
The Holy Synod approved the locum tenens appointed by the patriarch, Metropolitan of Senaki and Chkhorotsk Shio (Mujiri), who will be responsible for conducting the patriarchal elections.
Who was Ilia II?
Ilia II (in the world – Irakli Georgievich Gudushauri-Shiolashvili) was born on January 4, 1933. In 1957 he was tonsured a monk and received the name Ilia; on April 18, 1957, in the patriarchal cathedral “Sioni” he was ordained a hierodeacon by the Georgian Patriarch Melchizedek III. On May 10, 1959, in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, as a student at the Moscow Theological Academy, he was ordained a hieromonk by the Russian Patriarch Alexy I, and on December 19, 1960 he received the title of abbot (in the Russian Orthodox Church it is not associated with a position, ed.). On September 16, 1961, he received the title of Archimandrite, and on August 25, 1963, he was ordained to the episcopal rank with the title of Vatumsky and appointed as the choir bishop of Catholicos-Patriarch Ephrem II. In the period 1963–1972, he was the first rector of the Mtskheta Theological Seminary; in 1967, he was transferred to the Sukhumi-Abkhazian Diocese. On May 17, 1969, he was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan; and on December 23, 1977, he was elected Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia. From 1964 until his election as Patriarch, he headed the Synodal Department for External Church Relations of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
Interesting facts from the secular life of Ilia II
During the time of Vakhtang Gorgasali, a certain Sno distinguished himself in battle. The king baptized his son and gave him the name Gudushauri, and built a fortress in his honor. The Gudushauri lived in the mountainous region of Khevi and were famous warriors. Among them, Shiola Gudushauri stood out for his courage. In Georgia, it is said that it was from his descendants that the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II came.
Shiola Gudushauri lived at the beginning of the 7th century. He ruled the Gudushauri valley, which included Achkhoti and several villages: Sno, Akhaltsikhe, Karkucha and the entire surrounding area. In order to preserve the name of Shiola, some of his direct descendants adopted the surname Shiolashvili.
The father of the future patriarch Ilia – Giorgi Gudushauri – was born and lived in Sno. His mother – Natalia Kobaidze – was from the village of Sioni. In 1927, the family bought a house for temporary residence in Vladikavkaz and moved there. Many clergymen, including the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Kallistrat Tsintsadze, maintained ties with the family of Georgi Gudushauri. It was through their family that the patriarch maintained ties with the Georgians living in Vladikavkaz.
The Patriarch in his youth
The Georgian Church in Dzaugu (Vladikavkaz) was then under the jurisdiction of the Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia. There, on the third day after the Nativity of Christ, the newborn was baptized and, in honor of Tsar Heraclius, received the name Heraclius (Erekle). The future Patriarch of Georgia was baptized by the former secretary of Catholicos-Patriarch Kirion, Archimandrite Tarasius (Kandelaki). The child’s godmother was nun Zoile (Dvalishvili).
Later, Archimandrite Tarasius was ordained bishop of Tsilkani and was buried in the courtyard of the Svetitskhoveli temple, and nun Zoile became abbess first of the Bedi and then of the Samtavro nunnery in Mtskheta. The godmother often took her godson to Samtavro, where the three-year-old Heraclius once met Catholicos-Patriarch Kallistrat Tsintsadze, from whom the little one received a blessing.
The children of Giorgi Shiolashvili grew up in a church environment from an early age. The family went to pray in the church dedicated to St. Prophet Elijah. Giorgi also set up a second prayer corner in his home in honor of the Mother of God.
“I want to remember my childhood. Every night before bed, my father would line up my brothers and sisters in front of the icons and read us prayers; he would make us read some prayers too, for example, one of us had to recite the 90th Psalm, then he would sprinkle us with holy water and send us to sleep, while he himself continued the prayer. Finally, he would kneel before the icon of all the Georgian saints as many times as there were saints depicted on it, and from each of them he would ask for a blessing,” recalls Patriarch Ilia II.
The Patriarch’s Parents
In 1952, Irakli Shiolashvili-Gudushauri graduated from secondary school No. 22 in Vladikavkaz and continued his studies at the Moscow Theological Seminary, located in Zagorsk (the name of the city of Sergiev Posad during the communist era). He graduated from the seminary with a first-class diploma and, as the best student, was enrolled in the first year of the Theological Academy.
At that time, the abbot of the Holy Trinity Monastery was the future Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Pimen.
“I fondly remember the years at the Moscow Theological Seminary, when both students and teachers happily went to listen to the eloquent and meaningful sermons of the then still young, full of strength abbot… We especially loved to attend the monastic tonsures,” recalls the Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia.
It was this that prompted the young student at the academy to choose the monastic path.
On April 16, 1957, at the age of 24, with the blessing of Catholicos-Patriarch Melchizedek III in the church of St. Alexander Nevsky in Tbilisi, the second-year student of the Theological Academy Irakli was tonsured a monk. The sequence of tonsure was performed by Bishop Zinovy (Mazhuga), who gave the monk the name Elijah.
“This church is especially dear to me personally, because here in 1957, by God’s providence and with the blessing of His Holiness and Beatitude Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Melchizedek III, Bishop Zinovy, tonsured me a monk. Among the young people of that time, I was the first monk,” the patriarch says.
When his son Irakli had already become a monk, his father sent him a letter filled with love and reverence:
“In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Greetings and victory to Father Ilia, now to my son Irakli. We pray to Almighty God for your health and life, so that your heart may always be joyful. Tonight is the feast of Saint Nino – may she help you and protect you. Irakli, do not worry about us, we are all well. I repeat to you: we are not suffering anything, you take the easy path, be good. May God always be with you! In our short earthly life, everything is like a dream. Your father writes to you, again and again – may God be with you!”
On April 18 of the same year, in the Patriarchal Temple “Sioni”, Monk Ilia was ordained a hierodeacon, and a little later in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Hierodeacon Ilia was ordained a hieromonk by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy I.
In a letter, his mother Natalia Kobaidze sends greetings from the homeland of her son, who left for Russia:
“Greetings to my beloved son, my dear, my gold, my diamond. I bless God for your healthy life, my heart. We have just received your telegram in which you write how you arrived. We arrived well, we stayed in Mtskheta for two days, then we all left together. Greetings to everyone – your loved ones, your faithful Georgians and Russians. Be well, my treasure, may God be your protector in every work and at every step. I pray to the Mother of God to protect you and deliver you from evil. Your mother, who watches over the road, writes to you you…”
While still studying at the academy, Hieromonk Ilya wrote a candidate’s thesis on the topic: “History of the Iberian Monastery on Mount Athos”, for which he was awarded the scientific degree of candidate of theology. In the same 1960, he graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy with a first-class diploma, after which the academic council offered him, as the best among the excellent students, to continue his studies as a professorial scholarship holder. He had the opportunity to lecture at the seminary and the academy, but the blessing of His Holiness and His Beatitude Ephraim II had other plans: Hieromonk Ilia had to begin his ministry in his homeland. Therefore, he gave up his honorable career, returned to Georgia, and was appointed a priest in the cathedral of Batumi.
He served in almost all ranks, and after seven years of service in Adjara, in 1967 he was transferred as Bishop of Tskhum-Abkhazia. In 1969 he was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan, and Metropolitan Ilia spent 11 years in Sukhumi. He was also the first rector of the Mtskheta Theological Seminary (1963–1972).
We pray that our Lord Jesus Christ, through the prayers of His all-revered Mother, Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, may repose the soul of His blessedly departed and ever-memorable servant, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II, forgiving him every voluntary and involuntary transgression that he committed in word, deed and thought, and may he be placed in the abodes of the righteous!
May the Lord grant peace and comfort to the Georgian people and appoint a worthy successor to Patriarch Ilia, who has passed away from us!
May God forgive him! May his memory be eternal and blessed!
