“History continues, and Georgia’s 2,000-year-old Church rejoices” said Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili following the election of Shio III as Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Archbishop of Mtskheta-Tbilisi, and Metropolitan of Bichvinta and Tskhum-Abkhazia.

“Today, on May 11, 2026, by the will of God, within His two-thousand-year-old Church, on the throne of Saint Andrew the First-Called, and on the 1,700th anniversary of Christianity being proclaimed in Georgia, a new Patriarch has been chosen — a worthy hierarch among the worthy.

The Georgian Orthodox Church recently elected His Holiness Shio as the 142nd Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia.

The bishops cast their votes amongst three candidates. The results of the ballot were as follows: the locum tenens of the Patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Shio of Senaki and Chkhorotsku (Mujiri) received 22 votes; Metropolitan Iobi of Mroveli-Urbnisi (Akiashvili) received nine votes; and Metropolitan Grigoli of Poti and Khobi (Berbichashvili) received seven votes.