(November 8, 1999, Svetitskhoveli)

Your Holiness, our dear brother!

This is the first time today, when our ancient capital Mtskheta and the first patriarchal cathedral-Svetitskhoveli is meeting with the Primate of the church of Rome, His Holiness Pope John Paul II.

      We do cordially greet You, Your Holiness, on behalf of the Holy Synod of the Georgian Church, the clergy and the faithful laymen. You have visited the holy place, where the robe of St. Eliah the Prophet, brought to Georgia in the 6th century, B.C. is buried, where the greatest relic of the Christendom-vesture of our Lord Jesus Christ has been kept since the 1st century, Where our kings and glorious ancestors repose, where coronation of the kings took place and enthronment of patriarchs have been conducted for centuries.

      We greet You on behalf of the church and the country, where the apostle Andrew the First Called, Bartholomew, Tadeoz, Simon the Cananian and Matata preached. Two of the mentioned apostles – Simon the Cananian and Matata repose in Georgia. Georgia is the country, where in the beginning of the 4th century, like in Byzantine, Christianity was proclaimed as a state religion.

      Georgia is the country, where the nail of our Lord Jesus Christ, sent by the emperor Konstantine the Great, vesture of the Holy Virgin, St. Nino’s cross of vine and other relics have been kept.

      Georgia is the country, where St. John the Chrysostom and Maksim the Confessor died.

      You have visited the country, the mother of which is the Holy Virgin, because this land fell to Her lot; at the same time Iveria is under a special patronage of St. George and St. Nicholas.

      All the above mentioned authorises us to say that Georgia is protected by the right hand of God. Without great mercy of the Lord our country would not have survived the invasions of numerous enemies for centuries. Georgia was invaded and destroyed many times, but the invaders failed to break out internal firmness and Christian devotion. Devotion to faith was so strong in our people, that being Georgian and being Christian became synonymous for the neighbouring countries.

      If look through our nearest past, we shall see, that despite of 70 years of faithless period, despite of the fact that lots of churches and monasteries were destroyed by the Godless, major part of the clergy became the victims of repression and material way of life was introduced. Today, when we have reestablished our independence and are free from the atheistic propaganda, the main goal of our people still is to protect the language, the land and the faith.

      Those are the three phenomenons, to violation of which a Georgian man will never reconcile with and will never allow it to happen in the future. I would like to mention, that it is the pain of our spirit for centuries. It determines our identity even today. It is true, that we are now independent, but it cost us very expensive to achieve it. As a result of the artificially created conflicts by the external forces, territorial integrity of our country was violated. More than 300 000 refugees from Apkhazia and Samachablo are a heavy burden on the country, being in a difficult material conditions. Various kinds of sects and religious movements from foreign countries are intensively coming into our country, which by means of setting up so called “humanitarian aid “ and ‘’charitable” organizations, try to proselitise and persuade the religiously uneducated, in need population to become their members.

      Yes, we are in need from social, economic, spiritual point of view. As we have already mentioned, the issue of territorial integrity still remains open, but even in these hardships we have a great mercy of the Lord; major part of the people have remembered God because of the difficult conditions, thy have started to observe their lives, to think about the eternal life, to correct the committed mistakes.

      The fact, that today, despite of total hardships, several churches and monasteries are built in almost all the regions of the country by peoples own resources, is quite sufficient to refer to as an example of spiritual elevation. Such periods of revival were quite seldom in the history of our country.