TBILISI, March 22. /TASS/. Late Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II has been buried at Tbilisi’s Sioni Cathedral, a TASS correspondent reported.

Earlier in the day, tocum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne Metropolitan Shio led a funeral service at Tbilisi’s Holy Trinity Cathedral. The burial ceremony at the Sioni Cathedral was attended hierarchs of the Georgian Orthodox Church and representatives of foreign church delegations, as well as Georgian President Mikhail Kavelashvili, Prime Minister Irakly Kobakhidze and other members of the republic’s government and parliament.

Ilia II was elected Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia in 1977. He was a graduate of the Moscow Theological Seminary. During the years of his spiritual leadership, the number of eparchies of the Georgian Orthodox Church increased to 47 from 15. The name of Ilia II is associated with the construction of Georgia’s largest church, the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi, which was opened in 2004.

Ilia II died on the evening of March 17 at a Tbilisi hospital at the age of 93. Georgia announced mourning for the late Georgian patriarch before the day of his funeral.