Georgian priest posthumously awarded for bravery in Italian ferry disaster

A Georgian priest who died while trying to save others in a ferry tragedy in the Adriatic Sea last year has been honoured posthumously by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

Georgian priest, Head of a Monastery in Mtskheta, Ilia Kartozia showed "extraordinary bravery” during the disaster, which claimed the lives of at least 11 people, including Kartozia himself.

Each year the IMO, a specialist agency of the United Nations, presents special awards to people who show extraordinary bravery. This year at the 114th IMO session, the organisation named the Georgian priest as the Hero of the Year, following a proposal from the Maritime Transport Agency of the Georgia’s Economy Ministry.

Priest Kartozia was awarded for the bravery he showed during the Adriatic Sea tragedy. This was the first time this or other similar awards have ever been presented to a Georgian citizen.

Meanwhile last month Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili awarded the late Archimandrite a posthumous award for his "exemplary civil devotion, heroism and extraordinary personal bravery".

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.

Father Kartozia left for Italy to make a pilgrimage to the Church of Saint Nicolas in the Italian city of Bari with eight other Georgians. Of the nine Georgian’s on board, one was pregnant and one was a child.

The Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic caught alight 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.

Father Ilia was abbot of the Mtskheta monastery.