Patriarch Ilia of Georgia Baptizes 630 Children in 57th Mass Ceremony

Pravmir.com team | 23 January 2019

His Holiness Patriarch-Catholicos Ilia II of Georgia, the most beloved and trusted man in the nation, has celebrated his 57th mass Baptism ceremony at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi, the site of the Georgian Orthodox Church reports.

 

The Sacrament was celebrated in Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi on January 20, with another 630 newly-baptized becoming the Godchildren of the Patriarch. His Holiness baptized more than 700 children at the previous ceremony in late November.

 

“Today is a happy day,” Pat. Ilia said. “More than 500 children have been baptized and joined the army of Christ. I congratulate you with this happy day. You know that Georgia is the lot of the Most Holy Theotokos. These children and all of Georgia are under the protection of the Theotokos.”

 

Every child was given a Baptismal cross and a certificate of Baptism. Altogether, Pat. Ilia now has more than 37,800 Godchildren.

 

With the first mass Baptism on January 19, 2008, Patriarch Ilia commenced his initiative to help improve the dire demographic situation in Georgia caused by post-Soviet abortion rates. Such mass celebrations are held four times a year in which the primate personally baptizes and becomes the Godfather for the third and later children of married Orthodox couples.

 

According to the latest statistics, the country has a population of 3,718,200. According to the forecast of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), this number may drop to 2,985,000 people by 2050.

 

Pat. Ilia has been the primate of the Georgian Church for 41 years. At the time of his enthronement, there were 15 dioceses and only 30 active churches left thanks to communist persecutions. Today there are 47 dioceses and about 2,000 active parishes, as well as about 3,000 clergy.

Since you are here…

…we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong.

Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable.

For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir.

If everyone reading Pravmir could donate 5 euros a month, they would contribute greatly to our ability to spread the word of Christ, Orthodoxy, life's purpose, family and society.