Patriarch Ilia II, who led the Georgian Orthodox Church (CNEWA profile) from 1977 until his death, died on March 17 at the age of 93.
“He is a man of God; this man moved me,” Pope Francis said in 2016, after meeting the Patriarch during his apostolic journey to Georgia. “The times that I met him, I came away deeply moved, and with the feeling of having found a man of God. Truly, a man of God.”