Ilia II, Catholicos Patriarch of All Georgia died on Tuesday (17 March) at the age of 93. He had been leader of the Orthodox Church in Georgia since 1977. Dennis Sammut wrote this obituary for commonspace.eu: I met Patriarch Ilia for the first time in March 1992, on my first visit to Georgia. I was accompanied to the Patriarchate by Zurab Zhvania and Ghia Baramidze. When we entered the Patriarch’s office, Zurab Zhvania shook his hand, Ghia Baramizde kissed it. The Patriarch was in a short-sleeved shirt, and throughout our conversation, he woke up from his chair several times to answer phone calls. It was a very relaxed meeting in a very difficult moment in Georgia’s history. Georgia, recently independent after the collapse of the USSR, was in complete chaos. Edward Shevardndze had come back from Moscow a few days before to head the State Council, but there was little sign of government. When I next met Ilia II a few years later, it was a different meeting. He was sitting on his throne in full robes. The conversation was more formal. Ilia II had made the transition to become the leader we are more familiar with. Between them Shevardnadze and Ilia II saved Georgia in that difficult period: Shevardnadze was instrumental on the margins, ensuring the loyalty of the large and restless Armenian and Azerbaijani minorities, and the now disempowered but still influential nomenklatura. But it was Ilia II who controlled the hearts of the Georgian heartland, and he understood what needed to be done as Georgia continued to implode, often as in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, with Russian instigation and support. Ilia II was born in Vladikafkaz, modern day North Ossetia, to a Georgian Orthodox family, he studied at the Moscow Theological from 1956 to 1960. Ilia served as Bishop of Simokhedi 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. He was elected Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia in 1977. During his tenure, Ilia II led the growth and restoration of the Church in Georgia. During the Shevardnadze years, until 2003, Ilia II was able to position the Church as an important player in the Georgian state and society. This relationship became more complicated in the Saakashvili era that followed from 2003-2012. Under the Ivanishvili since, the Church has remained important, bot boxed in. It is riddled by internal divisions and accusations of corruption. For more than a decade Ilia II has been frail, and many say that he lost control. But his personality and presence ensured at least nominal unity of the church, and no one dared to question his word too loudly. His death creates a vacuum. There is a danger that the church will divide, or that a faction will take hold of it. This will have implications for the country. Georgia already has a very polorised political scene. The Patriarch was the last symbol of unity. The next days and weeks will be testing for the Georgian Orthodox Church and Georgian society. The death of Ilia II is not only the end of an era in Georgia. It marks a break with a past that no longer exists. But for many Georgians, a new present has not yet started. Source: This obituary was prepared for commonspace.eu by Dennis Sammut