Ilia II (secular name Irakli Gudushauri-Shiolashvili; 4 January 1933 – 17 March 2026) was the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia from 1977 until his death in 2026. He was the longest serving patriarch in the history of the Georgian Orthodox Church, which spans more than a millennium.
Born in Ordzhonikidze (modern-day Vladikavkaz, Russia), to a Georgian Orthodox family, he studied at the Moscow Theological Academy from 1956 to 1960. During that time he became a monk and was also ordained to the priesthood. Ilia served as bishop of Batumi and Shemokmedi from 1963 to 1967 and as bishop of Sukhumi and Abkhazia from 1967 to 1977. He also led the church's external relations department from 1964 to 1977. In that position, he worked to secure the recognition of the autocephaly of the Georgian Orthodox Church by other Eastern Orthodox churches. He was elected as Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia in 1977.
During his patriarchate, Ilia II led the growth and restoration of the Church in Georgia, especially after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Georgian Orthodox Church had a central role in cultural development during the early post-Soviet years, and an increased role in social welfare. Ilia II founded educational centers, expanded the church hierarchy, encouraged parish life, and opened hundreds of new churches and monasteries. He consistently polled as the most trusted public figure in Georgia up until his death. Considered a social conservative, he advocated for a constitutional monarchy in Georgia. Ilia II also obtained the recognition of the Church's autocephaly by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 1990, and worked to improve diplomatic relations between Russia and Georgia in the wake of the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. In 2010, he was appointed Metropolitan Bishop of Bichvinta and Tskhum-Abkhazia. He died in March 2026, at the age of 93.
Early life and education Ilia II was born Irakli Gudushauri-Shiolashvili on 4 January 1933 in Ordzhonikidze (modern-day Vladikavkaz, Russia) to Georgian parents. His father, Giorgi Shiolashvili (1883–1967), was from the village of Sno, and his mother, Natalia Kobaidze (1895–1962), from the village Sioni. The Gudushauri family was established by a close associate of the 5th-century Georgian king Vakhtang Gorgasali, and the Shiolashvili are a branch of that family, with a fortress honoured in their name in the Kazbegi Municipality.
When he was growing up, his parents provided refuge to clergymen who were in hiding from the Soviet government, and they had an influence on his worldview. His family were acquaintances of Callistratus, the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia and head of the Georgian Orthodox Church. They had bought a house in Vladikavkaz in 1927, and the patriarch maintained contact with the Georgian Orthodox community in the city through his father. In 1947, his parents and some of their associates built an Orthodox church there. They also knew members of the local Muslim community, who also visited the family during that time.
In 1952, Irakli Gudushauri-Shiolashvili graduated from school no. 22 in Vladikavkaz and then attended the Moscow Theological Seminary, where he was recognized in his first year for his writing. After that he attended the Moscow Theological Academy from 1956 to 1960. During that time, he was tonsured as a monk with the blessing of the rector of the academy, as well as patriarchs Alexy I of Moscow and Melchizedek III of Georgia. The tonsure took place on 16 April 1957, and he took the name Ilia, after the prophet Elijah. In 1960, he graduated from the academy with a Candidate of Theology degree, and his thesis was titled History of the Iveron Monastery on Mount Athos.
Priesthood and episcopate Ilia was ordained as a hierodeacon on 18 April 1957 by Melchizedek III of Georgia at the Tbilisi Sioni Cathedral, and as a hieromonk on 10 May 1959 by Alexy I of Moscow at the church of St. Sergius of Radonezh, Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius. After his graduation from the Moscow Theological Academy, he was offered the opportunity to stay and continue scholarly work, but he spoke to then-head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Ephraim II of Georgia, who advised him "follow your heart". Ilia decided to return to Georgia, where he worked at St. Nicholas Cathedral in Batumi and became its rector in December 1960. On 19 December 1960, he was elevated to the rank of hegumen, and on 16 September 1961 to the rank of archimandrite. His work in the region of Adjara contributed to the growth of Orthodoxy there.
He became a theologian, and also personally gathered evidence to support the restoration of the ancient autocephaly of the Georgian Orthodox Church. Ilia rose quickly through the church hierarchy, becoming a bishop at the age of thirty. On 25 August 1963, Ilia was chosen to be the bishop of Batumi and Shemokmedi and appointed a patriarchal vicar. His episcopal consecration took place with Ephraim II as principal consecrator. From 1964 to 1972, he was also the first rector of the Mtskheta Theological Seminary—the only clerical school in Georgia at that time. On 1 September 1967, he was transferred from Batumi to the eparchy of Sukhumi and Abkhazia. On 17 May 1969, he was appointed a metropolitan. Ilia spoke in Georgian, Church Slavonic, Abkhaz, and Greek during the Divine Liturgy.
Ilia was the head of the Department of External Relations in the Georgian Orthodox Church from 1964 to 1977, during which time he worked towards securing the recognition of the autocephaly of the Church in the Orthodox world. The Georgian Orthodox Church had been recognized as an autocephalous church by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1943, but this was not recognized elsewhere at the time. In 1964, he raised the issue with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople during the Third Pan-Orthodox Conference, and stormed out after other participants disagreed with him. Ilia attended other international events, such as meetings of the World Council of Churches (1970) and the Christian Peace Conference (1974 and 1975), and met with the president and prime minister of India. He highly valued the Georgian monks at Mount Athos, and his first published work (1966) was about Venerable Georgy Mt'ats'mindeli (the Athonite), one of the most important saints of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
After the death of Ephraim II on 7 April 1972, Ilia was widely supported by Georgian clergy and laymen to become his successor as head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, but his appointment was rejected by Vladimir A. Kuroyedov of the Council for Religious Affairs.
Patriarchate
After the death of the controversial patriarch David V, on 9 November 1977 Ilia was elected locum tenens of the patriarchal throne by majority vote in the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church. Ilia II was elected the new Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia on 23 December, and was enthroned in a ceremony on 25 December 1977 at the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral.
During his patriarchate, the Orthodox Church went from having no power in Soviet Georgia to taking a central role in Georgian cultural development in the immediate post-Soviet years. The new patriarch began a course of reforms. He started by expanding the church hierarchy (which had 15 dioceses, five of which were vacant). In 1978, when the church celebrated its 1500th anniversary, Ilia consecrated four new bishops. By January 1979, the number of parishes expanded from 34 to 46. At the same time, he took measures to increase the knowledge of Orthodox teachings, and to expand the flock, which was almost non-existent. The Tbilisi Spiritual Academy was opened in October 1988 as a companion to the seminary in Mtskheta. A publishing department was established to print calendars and a journal. The patriarch oversaw the publication of a linguistically updated, modern Georgian version of the Bible, which was printed in 1989.Fairy von Lilienfeld, "Reflections on the Current State of the Georgian Church and Nation", 1993. Ilia II also pushed the government to register existing parishes and monasteries, while also reclaiming historic buildings of the Church, some of which had been used for other purposes by the Soviet state.
On 9 April 1989, the patriarch joined the people demonstrating in Tbilisi against the Soviet rule, although he fruitlessly urged the protesters to withdraw to the nearby Kashveti Church to avoid the bloodshed.David Remnick. "Report Says Moscow Sent Troops to Georgia", The Washington Post, 11 October 1989 Quote: "The leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Ilya II, got advance word that the army planned to break up the demonstration and appealed to the crowd of around 5,000 to go home or come to his church for safety. The protesters refused and continued the demonstration." This peaceful demonstration was dispersed by the Soviet troops, leaving behind 22 dead and hundreds injured. The presence of Ilia II at the protests, his conduct of the nationalist leader Merab Kostava's funeral in October 1989, and his opening of the Georgian National Convention in May 1990 represented the unity between the Church and the Georgian independence movement. During the civil war in Georgia in the 1990s, he called the rival parties to find a peaceful solution to the crisis and hosted negotiations. On 14 October 2002, the then-president of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze and Ilia II signed a concordat whereby the Georgian Orthodox Church was granted a number of privileges, in accordance with Article 9 of the Constitution of Georgia, which recognizes the Orthodox Church as the first among equals when it comes to religion in Georgia. Holders of the office of patriarch were given legal immunity.Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, International Religious Freedom Report for 2015, Georgia
In the post-Soviet years, his patriarchate expanded the Church's role in social welfare, and the Church underwent a massive expansion. As of 2009, the Church had expanded to have 39 hierarchs and dioceses, with 1,500 churches and 170 monasteries, served by a total of 3,200 clergymen. In 2002, with the patriarch's blessing, regimental chaplains were restored in the Defence Forces of Georgia, which according to him "will contribute significantly to the spiritual uplifting of military personnel." Another significant event of his patriarchate was the construction of the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi from 1995 to 2004—which became the largest in Georgia and one of the largest Orthodox cathedrals in the world. Ilia II was joined by hierarchs from many other Orthodox churches during the consecration of the new cathedral on 23 November 2004. In 2006, the Church founded the Saint Andrew the First-Called Georgian University of the Patriarchate of Georgia. Ilia II also devoted attention to restoring ties with the Georgian monasteries abroad, like Iveron Monastery on Mount Athos and the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem. He explored the possibility of restoring the Monastery of the Cross to the Georgian Church, as it has been under the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
In 2010, by the decision of the Holy Synod, Ilia II was appointed Metropolitan Bishop of Bichvinta and Tskhum-Abkhazia. Accordingly, he was officially styled as "Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, the Archbishop of Mtskheta-Tbilisi and Metropolitan Bishop of Bichvinta and Tskhum-Abkhazia".
Initiative to increase the birth rate