Armenian Ambassador congratulates Georgia on election of new  Patriarch of Georgian Orthodox Church

ArmInfo.  Armenian Ambassador to Georgia Ashot Smbatyan congratulated Georgia and the fraternal Georgian people on the historic day of the election, consecration, and enthronement of Shio III as Catholicos-Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church. 

"With the greatest love, I convey my best wishes to Shio III, whom I  had the honor of meeting warmly.  And I believe it is no coincidence  that on the day of his consecration, the Georgian Church celebrates a  feast of Christian light and love.

I wish His Holiness long, peaceful, and healthy years of God-pleasing  service, which, I am confident, will continue the Christian morality  instilled by the spiritual fathers of the Georgian Church and will  further strengthen the Georgian people and the Mother Church," reads  Smbatyan's message, published on the Facebook page of the Armenian  Embassy in Georgia.

On May 11, the Enlarged Council of the Georgian Orthodox Church  elected Shio as the new, 142nd Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia.  According to the voting results, the locum tenens of the patriarchal  throne, Metropolitan Shio (Mujiri) of Senaki and Chkhorotskus,  received 22 votes. The enthronement of the new Catholicos-Patriarch  of All Georgia, Shio Mujiri, Shio III, took place at Svetitskhoveli  Cathedral in Mtskheta on May 12.

The Chorbishop of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Elizbar  Teimurazovich Mujiri, was born on February 1, 1969, in Tbilisi. In  1991, he entered Shiomghvime Monastery as a novice. On February 5,  1993, novice Elizbar was tonsured a monk with the name Shio. He was  appointed the monastery's refectory master, then steward. In 1995,  Monk Shio was ordained a deacon, and in 1996, Catholicos-Patriarch  Ilia II ordained Hierodeacon Shio a priest. In 1997, Hieromonk Shio  was appointed rector of St. George's Church in the Kldisubani  district of Tbilisi. On August 2, 2010, he was appointed Chorbishop  of the Catholicos- Patriarch of All Georgia. On November 23, 2017,  Bishop Shio was appointed Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, and  on June 21, 2018, at a meeting of the Holy Synod, he was awarded the  right to wear a diamond cross on his skufia.