PM highlights Georgian Patriarch’s “immeasurable” contribution to nation on 90th anniversary
In his message, the Government head extended “with special respect and love” his best wishes to the religious figure who has led the Patriarchate of the Church since 1977. Photo: Government Administration
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Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Wednesday congratulated Ilia II, the Catholicos Patriarch of Georgia’s Orthodox Church, on his 90th birthday and highlighted his “immeasurable” contribution to the nation.
In his message, the Government head extended “with special respect and love” his best wishes to the religious figure who has led the Patriarchate of the Church since 1977.
[Ilia II’s] contribution to the nation and motherland is immeasurable, and the true sense of respect and love towards him among our public is also immeasurable”, Garibashvili said.
The PM also called the Patriarch a “symbol of the nation's unity” and a “great hope and support for all of us”.
Ilia II was consecrated as the Bishop of Abkhazia - the now Russian-occupied north-western region of Georgia - and elevated to the rank of Metropolitan in 1969.
After the death of Patriarch David V, he was elected the new Catholicos Patriarch on December 25, 1977.
Between 1978-1983, he also served as Co-President of the World Council of Churches, which the Georgian Orthodox Church joined in 1962 but left in 1997.