Congratulations on the 46th Anniversary of the Enthronement of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Archbishop of Mtskheta and Tbilisi and Metropolitan of Bichvinta and Tskhum-Abkhazeti, His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II

Your Holiness, the Rector of Tbilisi Theological Academy and Seminary, its Academic Council, Professors and Students, with great reverence, respect and gratitude, congratulate You on the forty-sixth jubilee of Your enthronement. Your merit before the Georgian Orthodox Church and the entire Georgian nation is inestimable. Right from the day of Your enthronement, You set a goal for Yourself to revive in our society spirituality, ecclesiastical education and science, which would not have been possible without higher theological schools. It is due to Your special efforts and great international authority that the Apostolic Orthodox Church of Georgia gained worldwide recognition of its historical Autocephaly, which was the most important event in the life of our nation. This fact was preceded by the establishment of the theological school - Tbilisi Theological Academy, which seemed unattainable in that epoch. As the result of Your work, Gelati Theological Academy as well as theological seminaries in different regions of our country were established.
Directly connected with Your name is the establishment of new dioceses, selection and ordaination of new hierarchs, creation of Georgian dioceses beyond our country, the latter conditioned by Your special care for our compatriots living abroad, the restoration of monastic life and unprecedented ecclesiastical reconstruction, which was crowned by the construction of the Holy Trinity Cathedral, opening of parochial schools, reviving of the ancient Georgian ecclesiastical architecture, icon painting, church singing, canonization of Georgian figures of great dignity, establishing of the rule of seven daily prayers as a means of spiritual unification of our people and the outpouring of divine grace upon the Georgian nation.
Through Your efforts were established: Gelati Academy of Sciences, “Georgian University” of Andrew the First-Called, the TV channel of the Patriarchate “Ertsulovnrba”, Radio “Iveria”, St. Giorgi the Athonite Higher School of Church Singing and a number of other higher educational centers of secular and theological education. Ecclesiastical publishing house has reached a new height. The “International Charitable Foundation for the Revival and Development of Spirituality, Culture and Science” has been established, which implements projects of national importance, Constitutional Agreement was signed between the Church and the state, according to which the highest legal status of the Orthodox Church of Georgia was defined.
Along with the restoration of the territorial integrity of the country, You attach great importance to improving the demographic situation. It is the result of Your special merit and extraordinary blessing that up to 47,357 of Your godchildren have been added to the Georgian nation and the Church of Georgia. You have been serving the Church, the Georgian nation, for 46 years now. In the most difficult times, the Most High God has chosen and exalted You, and bestowed upon You the heaviest and most honorable cross of the leader of the ancient Church of Iberia, which You have borne with Godly love for our people and special spiritual uprightness, due to which the Georgian nation, distinguished by dignity, has the greatest love and respect for You.
Your Holiness, it is impossible to fully describe Your merits. Therefore, we have mentioned just only a few. Realizing the significance of Your personality for our country and our Church, we ask God to grant You good health and many more years of life, so that the grace of your guidance and your patriarchal prayer before God support our homeland for years and years to come.
25.12.2023

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