“This is a day when words are difficult, because what we are experiencing goes beyond ordinary pain, and what we feel surpasses ordinary mourning. These days, we stand in silence, filled with prayer. Our Holy Patriarch, His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II, has appeared before the Lord with his labor and his merits. His merit is us—his nation, his flock, his spiritual children. The Lord sent him as one man, and he returns to the Creator with an entire nation—so visibly united, as revealed in these great days,” said the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili, at the funeral ceremony held at the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi.

According to Papuashvili, this generation is the generation of the Patriarch—witnesses to the unique moment when an entire nation was spiritually united by one person, when all active clergy in Georgia were ordained with his blessing, and when the overwhelming majority of Georgian Christians were baptized with his blessing.

“The current multiplicity, identity, and form of our two-thousand-year-old Church were shaped by him. He laid the firm foundation of our nation and Church, which, in times of godlessness and nihilism, connected our past with the present and the present with the future. Indeed, we witnessed a miracle—the Georgian Church rising from the ashes, rebuilt through his tireless dedication. He was able to achieve this because he understood the most important truth,” he said.

According to Papuashvili, in today’s world, many values compete for primacy—freedom, equality, solidarity, and justice.

“The Most Holy and Blessed One gave each of them its rightful place, but taught us the essential truth: freedom, equality, and all other values lose their meaning if they are not grounded in the highest value—love. We had a Patriarch of love, its tireless preacher. Through his life, he showed how one can love everyone—both near and far, friends and adversaries, the righteous and the sinner alike,” the Speaker of Parliament stated.