The Autumn of the (Georgian) Patriarch. The role of the Orthodox Church in Georgia and in Georgian politics
The Autumn of the (Georgian) Patriarch. The role of the Orthodox Church in Georgia and in Georgian politics

Author(s): Wojciech Górecki
Subject(s): History of Church(es), Government/Political systems, Politics and religion, Eastern Orthodoxy
Published by: OSW Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich im. Marka Karpia
Keywords: Orthodox Church in Georgia; Georgian politics and religion; Patriarch; Mikheil Saakashvili;
Summary/Abstract: Analyses dedicated to Georgia’s domestic situation usually omit the religious aspect and the relation between the state and the country’s predominant religious organisation, i.e. the autocephalous Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC). The relatively few papers focused on this particular issue are exceptions. Meanwhile, the fact that Georgians as a nation are very devout (religion is an element of their national identity) and that Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II is an indisputable authority has a direct impact on the choices they make and on the policy pursued by the state. It can be said that one important reason behind the electoral success of Georgian Dream in 2012 was the support offered, albeit informally, by hierarchs of the GOC to the party’s leader Bidzina Ivanishvili. Easter celebrations attended by large numbers of believers on 19 April 2020 were an open display of the GOC’s power. The celebrations took place despite the restrictions due to a state of emergency declared nationwide in connection with the epidemic. Moreover, the GOC is on the eve of a succession – Ilia II who has been patriarch for more than 42 years, recently turned 87. This is causing internal tension in the Church which in turn acts as a catalyst for accelerating secularization.

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