Tbilisi, March 27, 2026
Photo: Georgian Church Public Relations Office
The Georgian Orthodox Church solemnly celebrated the 109th anniversary of the restoration of its autocephaly and the 9th day of the repose of His Holiness Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II on Wednesday, March 25.
The Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, His Eminence Metropolitan Shio of Senaki and Chkhorotsqu, served a paraklesis for the restoration of autocephaly at the Patriarchal Sioni Cathedral in Tbilisi and a panikhida at the grave of the newly reposed Patriarch, the Georgian Church reports.
Members of the Holy Synod and other clergy concelebrated. The service was attended by the President of Georgia, the Prime Minister, the Speaker of Parliament, representatives of the legislative and executive branches of government, and a large number of faithful.
In his address, Met. Shio recalled the history of Georgian autocephaly, which the Georgian Church first received from the Antiochian Church in the 5th century through the efforts of the holy right-believing King Vakhtang Gorgasali. The Church maintained that autocephaly for centuries despite repeated foreign invasions, until it was abolished by decree of the Russian Emperor in 1811, when the Georgian Church was absorbed into the Russian Orthodox Church.
The tomb of Pat. Ilia at Sioni Cathedral. Photo: sazu.ge
Met. Shio explained that autocephaly allows a Local Church to take full responsibility for its flock’s spiritual formation, conduct theology and missionary work in the native tongue, develop Church arts and national traditions according to its own needs, and independently glorify its own ascetics as saints—which is why the Georgian Church fought to recover it, he said.
The Georgian Church restored its autocephaly in 1917 at the Cathedral of the Living Pillar in Tbilisi. The Russian Orthodox Church recognized this restoration in 1943, though recognition by the Patriarchate of Constantinople was not forthcoming until 1990.
Met. Shio attributed this final recognition in large part to the personal efforts of Pat. Ilia II. “This great undertaking was accomplished by Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II,” he said, “who through many years of labor and through the great weight of his personal authority achieved” the result that in 1990, at the Triumph of Orthodoxy celebration in Constantinople, Patriarch Dimitrios I of Constantinople recognized the autocephaly and Patriarchal title of the Georgian Church as existing from ancient times.
Photo: sazu.ge
Met. Shio said that Patriarch Ilia II had thereby “crowned the labors and struggles of our forebears for the attainment of autocephaly.”
The Locum Tenens also reflected on the significance of the timing of this year’s commemoration, noting that it was “deeply symbolic” that the feast of the restoration of autocephaly coincided with the 9th day since the Patriarch’s repose. He described the outpouring of veneration from across Georgia in the days following Pat. Ilia’s death as “a true miracle,” saying that the unity and love demonstrated by the Georgian people gave the Church “great spiritual strength” and “great hope” to preserve what the Patriarch had bequeathed: “true faith in God, fidelity to the homeland, and love of one’s neighbor.”
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