The Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Archbishop of Mtskheta-Tbilisi, Metropolitan of Bichvinti and Tskhum-Abkhazia, His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II, was buried in Sioni Cathedral on the fifth day of national mourning.
Throughout this time, entertainment events were canceled across the country, and people streamed to the coffin of the head of the Church in a continuous, round-the-clock procession.
Ilia II passed away on March 17 at the age of 93, as a result of massive internal bleeding. For nearly five decades, he led the Georgian Orthodox Church, managing to revive church life after the Soviet period and embodying stability by the very fact of his existence against the backdrop of geopolitical upheavals. He reigned during the era of stagnation, perestroika, the collapse of the USSR, the attainment of independence, and civil and territorial wars. By the end of his life, he was considered one of the most respected Orthodox hierarchs in the world. During his patriarchate, six popes succeeded one another in the Vatican, and four national governments came and went in Georgia: those of Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Eduard Shevardnadze, Mikheil Saakashvili, and Bidzina Ivanishvili.
On the afternoon of March 22, the coffin containing the body of the Catholicos-Patriarch was carried by hand from the Holy Trinity-Sameba Cathedral to the Sioni Cathedral, one of the oldest churches in Tbilisi, with a history spanning nearly 14 centuries. Throughout the procession, the cortege moved through the streets along a living corridor formed by people who had come to see the head of the church off on his final journey.
At the moment of Ilia II’s burial, funeral bells rang in all the churches of Georgia.