Tbilisi, December 16, 2024
Photo: sazu.ge
The Patriarch of Georgia has called on clergy and faithful to take up a special prayer rule in response to recent events.
In a recent statement, His Holiness Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II directs priests to ring church bells at 1:00 PM daily for a prayer service to the Theotokos, while laypeople are asked to pray specific prayers including the Our Father, Psalm 90, and several prayers to the Theotokos and Georgia’s most beloved saints.
In his message, the Patriarch emphasizes that recent events threaten Georgia’s sovereignty and statehood, warning that hatred and violence can only harm the nation. He stressed that Christianity itself ends where love for neighbor ends, and called on all Georgians to distance themselves from violence and seek constructive dialogue.
Writing on the feast day of St. Andrew the First-Called, who founded the Georgian Church, the Patriarch affirms Georgia’s place as an inseparable part of European civilization while emphasizing the importance of maintaining the country’s traditional Christian values. He concludes by invoking the prayers of Georgia’s patron saints for the nation's unity, peace and prosperity.
Read the Patriarch’s full statement:
My spiritual children, the events that have unfolded in our country in recent days clearly show that every one of must take up the duty of caring for peace. Every person—young and old—must distance himself from violence and realize that sharply escalating tensions in our difficult times poses a real threat to our country’s main achievement—statehood and sovereignty!—and should determine his steps accordingly.
Moreover, to prevent uncontrollable processes, it’s crucial to achieve dialogue through constructive means.
Our problem today is also that we fail to see how we’re distancing ourselves from God and acting against His commandments; we forget that lack of love, cynicism, disrespect, which, unfortunately, has become habitual for part of our society, are destructive sins; (this is manifested in hate speech and physical retaliation).
We cannot solve any national task through mutual hatred, anger, and spite, and will only harm ourselves and the state. Our Christianity ends where love for our neighbor ends.
I have prayed for Georgia my entire life. Today too, I constantly ask the Lord to give us a wise and merciful heart.
Love for our homeland unites us all; that is why I address you: Let us unite in prayer for Georgia’s wellbeing, so that with God’s help and inner peace we can take proper steps.
Joint prayers have great power. To our clergy serving in Georgia and abroad, you blessed to ring the bell daily at 1:00 PM and offer an intercessory prayer service to the Most Holy Theotokos, and I ask the congregation in Georgia and abroad to pray (along with their personal canon) throughout the day: Our Father, Psalm 90, “Open unto us the door of thy mercy,” “Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos” (3 times), also the troparia of St. Andrew the Apostle, St. Nino, St. George and St. Nicholas, and finally “Save, O Lord, Your people.”
Georgia is an inseparable part of European civilization, and it is our duty to support the strengthening and development of a European-type national state based on our centuries-old Christian spiritual-cultural heritage and traditional values.
Today is the feast day of St. Andrew the First-Called, founder of the Georgian Church. It is also the commemoration day of Holy King Vakhtang Gorgasali, Catholicos Peter I and Samuel I. Through their intercession and that of other patron saints of Georgia, and through the mediation of the Most Holy Theotokos, may God grant unity, peace, and prosperity to our country.
The Georgian Church has issued repeated calls for peace over the past several weeks, as protestors have filled the streets of Tbilisi. Most recently, the Church condemned as blasphemous a display in which protesters burned a coffin bearing an image of Christ. According to media reports, the coffin depicted the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, which announced that talks on joining the EU will be suspended until 2028, after the European Parliament refused to accept the outcome of Georgia’s democratic Parliamentary elections in October.
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