Georgian Church names date for election of new patriarch

Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi. Photo: press service of the Georgian Church

The Georgian Orthodox Church will hold an expanded council to elect a new Catholicos-Patriarch on May 11, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. in Tbilisi, the press service of the Georgian Patriarchate reports.

The session will take place at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Sameba, in Tbilisi. Council participants will elect a successor to Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II of All Georgia, who died on March 17, 2026, at the age of 92. Under the statute of the Georgian Orthodox Church, the election of a new primate must take place no later than two months after the death of the sitting patriarch.

On April 28, 2026, the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church named three candidates for the patriarchal throne. The greatest support went to the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Shio of Senaki and Chkhorotsku, who received 20 votes. Metropolitan Job of Ruisi and Urbnisi and Metropolitan Grigol of Poti and Khobi each received seven votes. To be elected, a candidate must receive more than half the votes of the Synod’s hierarchs – at least 20.

As the UOJ reported, the Georgian Synod named three candidates for the patriarchal throne. Patriarch Ilia II headed the Georgian Church for 48 years, from his enthronement in December 1977. During that time, the number of active eparchies grew to 42, while the number of churches increased from 48 to more than a thousand.

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