US EditionGeorgia's Patriarch Ilia II Dies at 93
Ilia II led the Georgian Orthodox Church through post-Soviet revival and political tensions for nearly 50 years, guiding a faith embraced by 89% of Georgians, Pew Research Center said.
- On Tuesday, March 17, 2026, Ilia II, the Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia, died after being hospitalised, Metropolitan Shio said.
- Born on January 4, 1933, Irakli Ghudushauri-Shiolashvili studied at Moscow's Theological Academy amid Soviet anti-religious campaigns, rising through the clergy to become Catholicos-Patriarch.
- Under Ilia II, the Georgian Orthodox Church grew into the country's most powerful non-state institution and gained special rights in education and cultural heritage, with 89% of Georgians identifying as Orthodox.
- His death removes a dominant national spiritual figure with broad domestic influence, as Ilia II urged the government to ban the 2013 gay-rights rally that Amnesty International said caused 17 injuries, reflecting tensions in Georgian national life and church-state relations.
- Late in life Ilia II intervened in the Russia-Ukraine church dispute in 2023, urging the spiritual head of Eastern Orthodox Christians to 'reduce tensions' and expressing 'deep heartache' over Russia's 2022 invasion.
49 Articles
49 Articles
The patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Ilia II, died on 17 March 2026. With a 49-year-old reign, he was an adulated figure in Georgia, where 85% of the population claims to be practicing. His death opens a delicate political sequence, while the Church is accused of getting closer to Russia. The choice of a new patriarch might even be influenced by the Kremlin.
Georgian Orthodox Patriarch Ilia II, hailed as an ‘epochal figure,’ dies at 93
TBILISI, Georgia — Georgia’s Patriarch Ilia II, the longtime head of the Georgian Orthodox Church and one of the country’s most influential figures, has died. He was 93. Ilia II died late Tuesday after being hospitalized in critical condition with internal bleeding. “He was an epochal figure; it is a tremendous loss for the entire Orthodox Church,” said Shio Mujiri, who temporarily took over the leadership of the church pending the election of a…
Ilia II, patriarch who led Georgian Church out of the Soviet Union, dies at 93
The spiritual leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church for just shy of half a century, Ilia II oversaw its transformation from an institution repressed under the Soviet Union into the most powerful non-state body in one of the world's oldest Christian countries.
In Soviet times Ilia II became Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Georgia. In his term of office the Church gained new popularity and after the independence of the country the Patriarch became one of the most influential personalities of the Republic. Now he has died.
In the South Caucasus Republic of Georgia Patriarch Ilia II died in office at the age of 93 after almost half a century. Ilia II was considered one of the most influential figures in the history of independent Georgia and as the spiritual leader of the nation. The Patriarch was brought to the Caucasian Medical Centre early in the morning with a massive gastric hemorrhage. Shortly before his death, the most important representatives of the countr…
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