“Perhaps among the worthy Catholicoi of past times, no one so fully identified his name with Georgia, the Church, the nation, statehood, and the cause of peace in the Caucasus region as the ever-memorable, radiant Patriarch Ilia II,” said His All-Holiness Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople–New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, during his address at the memorial service held at the Holy Trinity Cathedral.

According to the Ecumenical Patriarch, with the Patriarch’s passing, the God-fearing Georgian nation has lost its spiritual father.

“How could we not weep with profound sorrow over the departure from among us of a person who stood at the highest level of moral dignity and a God-loving life—His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II, Archbishop of Mtskheta-Tbilisi, Metropolitan of Bichvinta and Tskhum-Abkhazia, and Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia.The honored assembly of the foremost hierarchs of the Holy Orthodox Church of Christ in the East bids farewell to one of its most worthy, wise, and distinguished brothers.

The Holy Church of the historic land of Georgia has lost a wise helmsman and God-worthy shepherd who led it for half a century. The venerable hierarchy of the country has lost its foremost hierarch, deeply learned in theology and rich in pastoral experience, through whom all bishops received the divine grace of episcopacy. The respected state authorities have lost a wise advisor in all good and people-loving endeavors, a messenger of peace and unity.

The God-fearing Georgian nation has lost a caring and loving father who, until his last breath, labored tirelessly for divine renewal, spiritual strengthening, social progress, and the well-being of his people.

The God-given heritage of Saint Nino, Equal-to-the-Apostles, and Saint George the Great Martyr has been deprived of its devoted guardian and faithful successor.

Perhaps no other among the worthy Catholicoi of past generations so fully identified his name with Georgia, the Church, the nation, statehood, and the mission of peace in the Caucasus region as the ever-memorable Patriarch Ilia II. He was truly a pillar of steadfastness for both the Church and his homeland, to which he gave equally his love, devotion, and daily care.

He dedicated himself from an early age to the service of Christ and His Church, at a time when faith was persecuted and atheism was legally enforced and dominant. He preserved wisdom and purity according to the Gospel, laboring diligently in virtue and in the fulfillment of divine commandments, training himself as a faithful servant of Christ and steward of God’s mysteries.

His entire life was a multifaceted testimony to the Orthodox faith and to the true experience of the Gospel’s truth. For this reason, God entrusted him early with the great responsibility of the episcopacy and soon after with the Patriarchate, as successor to the ever-memorable Patriarch David V.

He illumined his sacred episcopal ministry for 63 years and occupied the Patriarchal throne of Georgia for 49 years, as the 141st head of this Church. There was not a single sphere of ecclesiastical, social, or national life in Georgia where he did not leave a visible and beneficial mark.

He was devout and humble, prayerful and devoted to divine services, dignified in his clerical calling, brother-loving, a peacemaker and reconciler, sincere and kind in word and deed, broadly educated and exceptionally noble. He possessed a refined and creative nature, expressed in iconography, painting, music, and architecture. He was steadfast and unwavering in faith, in piety, and in defending the sacred interests of the Church, as a true imitator of Christ and a genuine heir of the Apostles and the Holy Fathers,” declared Bartholomew I.