“Georgia has lost its spiritual father, its beloved Patriarch, who devoted every moment of his life to the service of Christ, the defence of his homeland, and the care of his flock,” Shalva Papuashvili, Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, has written on social media.

As Papuashvili notes, it was Ilia II who, in the most grievous moments of despair and hopelessness, bore the weight of the cross and brought consolation to a people in tribulation.

“His Holiness Patriarch Ilia II led the 2,000-year-old Georgian Church for half a century. From the darkness of atheism and from embers nearly extinguished, he rekindled true faith in the Georgian nation and, through his labour and his prayers, brought our Church back to life.

In the most harrowing moments of despair and hopelessness, it was he who bore the weight of the cross. He was a comfort and an intercessor for a people in trial and affliction. He was far more to us than the head of a church.

Our Patriarch has joined the assembly of the blessed in heavenly Georgia, our heroic forebears, and yet his deeds and his words shall live on within our nation.

We are his generation, baptised, blessed and consecrated by him. I believe that through his heavenly prayers and blessing, we shall continue to be blessed, the nation and the monastics alike, the beloved homeland he cherished, every Georgian, and our Mother Church, for whose renewal he laboured throughout the whole of his life,” Shalva Papuashvili wrote.