Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Bartholomew I, has arrived at the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi.

Patriarch Bartholomew, together with the locum tenens of the Catholicos-Patriarch, Metropolitan Shio, and members of the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church, will perform the burial service for the late Patriarch Ilia II.

Various delegations will attend the ceremony, and speeches are also planned. Patriarch Bartholomew greeted members of the Georgian government at the cathedral.

The Ecumenical Patriarch was welcomed at Tbilisi International Airport by Bishop Gerasimus, Bishop Melchizedek, and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aleksandre Khvtisiashvili.

Ilia II, Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia, Archbishop of Mtskheta-Tbilisi, and Metropolitan of Bichvinta and Tskhum-Abkhazia,  will be laid to rest at Sioni Cathedral today. From the moment of his repose in Sioni Cathedral until the burial, funeral bells will ring in all active churches across Georgia.

Ilia II passed away on March 17 at the age of 93.