The Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Ilia II, Archbishop of Mtskheta-Tbilisi, and Metropolitan of Bichvinta and Tskhum-Abkhazeti, has passed away at the age of 93.

Due to a deterioration in his health, His Holiness and Beatitude was transported to the Caucasus Medical Center late at night on March 17. Ilia II was receiving treatment in the Critical Care Department`s intensive care unit.

Ilia II was elected as the country`s Patriarch in 1977. Ilia Shiolashvili ascended to the Patriarchal throne at the age of 43.

Ilia II was born 4 January 1933 as Irakli Ghudushauri-Shiolashvili in Ordzhonikidze [modern-day Vladikavkaz]. His parents came from the Kazbegi district of Georgia. His father, Giorgi Shiolashvili, was from the village of Sno, and his mother, Natalia Kobaidze, from the village Sioni. The Shiolashvili were an influential clan in the highlands of Khevi.

Irakli Ghudushauri graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary and was ordained, under the name of Ilia, a hierodeacon in 1957 and hieromonk in 1959. He graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy in 1960 and returned to Georgia, where he was assigned to the Batumi Cathedral Church as a priest. In 1961, he was promoted to hegumen and later to archimandrite. On 26 August 1963, he was chosen to be the bishop of Batumi and Shemokmedi and appointed a patriarchal vicar. From 1963 to 1972, he was also the first rector of the Mtskheta Theological Seminary - the only clerical school in Georgia at that time.

In 1967, Ilia was consecrated as the bishop of Tskhumi and Abkhazeti and elevated to the rank of metropolitan in 1969. After the death of the controversial Patriarch David V, he was elected the new Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia on 25 December 1977.

The new Patriarch began a course of reforms, enabling the Georgian Orthodox Church, once suppressed by the Soviet ideology, to largely regain its former influence and prestige by the late 1980s. In 1988, there were 180 priests, 40 monks, and 15 nuns for a congregation variously estimated as being from one to three million.

There were 200 churches, one seminary, three convents, and four monasteries. During the last years of the Soviet Union, he was actively involved in Georgia`s social life.

The Patriarch oversaw the publication of a linguistically updated, modern Georgian version of the Bible, which was printed in the Gorbachev era.

During the August 2008 Russo-Georgian War, Ilia II appealed to the Russian political leadership and the church, expressing concerns that "the Orthodox Russians were bombing Orthodox Georgians". He also made a pastoral visit, bringing food and aid, to the Russian-occupied central Georgian city of Gori and the surrounding villages which were at the verge of humanitarian catastrophe. He also helped retrieve the bodies of deceased Georgian soldiers and civilians.