President honours Georgian victim of Norman Atlantic ferry disaster
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The President of Georgia has awarded late Archimandrite Ilia Kartozia a posthumous award for his "exemplary civil devotion, heroism and extraordinary personal bravery" after he died while trying to save others in a ferry tragedy in the Adriatic Sea last year.
The body of the Georgian priest, who drowned while helping other passengers on board the burning Italian ferry Norman Atlantic on December 29 2014, was returned to Tbilisi on January 18, 2015.
The priest’s body is currently lying in state at the Holy Trinity Cathedral. Today Kartozia’s body will be transferred to Mtskheta to the David Agmashenebeli temple. He will be buried on January 20, 12pm in the Church’s yard.
Kartozia’s relatives paid respect to their loved one at the Holy Trinity Cathedral today.
Similarly, Georgia’s Finance Minister Nodar Khaduri attended today’s liturgy and offered his condolences to the priests' relatives.
Meanwhile witnesses said the Georgian religious figurehead died during the Norman Atlantic ferry disaster after he let a woman and her child take his place on a rescue boat.
Priest Kartozia left for Italy to make a pilgrimage to the Church of Saint Nicolas in the Italian city of Bari with eight other Georgians, reported Georgian Public Broadcaster.
In total nine Georgian citizens were on board the burning ship, including one pregnant woman and one child.
The Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic caught on fire and began to list in the early hours of December 29, 2014.
The ferry company operating the journey from the Greek city of Patras to Ancona in Italy said 478 people were on board the ship when it departed Greece.
It is not clear what caused the tragedy, which killed at least 11 people.
All expenses for the transportation and funeral of father Ilia Kartozia, who died during a fire on the Italian ferry in Adriatic Sea, will be covered by Georgian state.
Georgian priest Ilia Kartozia drowned helping other passengers of Italian ferry Norman Atlantic as Georgian survivor of the tragedy says.
Official Tbilisi expressed its immense condolences over the burnt ferry tragedy that caught fire off Greece's Adriatic Coast on December 28.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms that dead body found today in the Adriatic Sea was identified as the priest Ilia Kartozia, the Head of a Monastery in Mtskheta.
Five Georgian citizens are evacuated from a ferry, which caught fire near the Greek island of Corfu early this morning, but three Georgians and more than 200 passengers still remain on the burning ship.
The President of Georgia has posthumously honoured a young man who sacrificed his life to save a child and awarded him an Order for Civic Devotion.
A young man has sacrificed his life to save a young child from almost certain death in a high speed car accident in Rustavi.
Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has paid tribute to late Archimandrite Ilia Kartozia, who died while trying to save others in a ferry tragedy in the Adriatic Sea last month.