The usually distant and frowning face of Metropolitan Shio was overtaken by vulnerability as he ascended the patriarchal throne on May 12, 2026.

The day was meant to be historic. Falling on the Day of St. Andrew the First-Called, Christ’s apostle believed to have first preached Christianity in Georgia, the ceremony marked the country’s first patriarchal enthronement in nearly half a century. The previous one had taken place in the same Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in 1977, inaugurating the rule of Ilia II, Shio’s widely venerated predecessor. Shio — from now on, Shio III, 57 — would have to fill perhaps the largest shoes imaginable in Georgia’s public life.

The historical significance of the day, however, appeared eclipsed by an air of uncertainty. Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, located in Mtskheta, Georgia’s ancient capital near Tbilisi, was filled with clergy, officials, and faithful, but the surrounding area was not particularly crowded despite free transportation provided by Tbilisi authorities.

Since being named Locum Tenens by Ilia II in 2017, Metropolitan Shio, lay name Elizbar Mujiri, had steadily moved into the spotlight. Amid Ilia II’s declining health, he was often seen as the Church’s de facto leader. His upbringing in central Tbilisi, his early years spent among a circle that would later produce influential figures, and the tall stature that made him instantly recognizable in any crowd all seemed to mark him out for prominence in Georgia. Yet all these years, much of the future patriarch’s persona has remained obscure.

Perceiving him as Ilia II’s chosen successor, many of Georgia’s Orthodox Christians appear ready to embrace Shio III as their new shepherd. Critics, on the other hand, worry either that he will continue the Church’s hardline course or that things may take a worse turn under his leadership. Yet those willing to love him appear to be still figuring out whom to love, and those fearing him are yet to clearly articulate what to fear.

Cellist-Turned-Monk

Elizbar Mujiri was born in downtown Tbilisi in 1969, with observers noting him as the only Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarch raised in the capital in more than a century. He attended Tbilisi’s well-known 53rd Public School, where his circle of friends included future Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili and Levan Vasadze, currently a Moscow-friendly ultraconservative businessman. During his school years, Mujiri studied music, performing at concerts and reportedly winning contests, later continuing his cello studies at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire.

Those who knew Mujiri in his younger years describe him as a charming “aristocrat” and a talented cellist, born and raised in a respected, elite family of engineers, doctors, and academics in Tbilisi.

Photos have circulated on social media reportedly showing Shio Mujiri in his early years with a cello (left) and alongside late Patriarch Ilia II during his early clerical career (right).

Irakli Kakabadze, a prominent leftist figure who was also friends with the young Elizbar Mujiri, remembers him as “the most secular” member of their circle. Film director Giorgi Mgeladze, Mujiri’s childhood friend, recalls him as someone who lived in downtown Tbilisi, “and could walk with a cello without anyone having a problem with that,” alluding to the masculine cultural norms of late-1980s Tbilisi. Mgeladze has also been cited as recalling the friend group’s early meeting with Ilia II, during which Mujiri was reportedly the only one to refuse to kiss the patriarch’s hand, saying that “men are not kissed on the hand.” The group was reportedly engaged in youth activities directed towards national liberation in the late Soviet years.

Mgeladze, however, recounts Mujiri later describing struggles with his musical path, saying he would feel sick whenever he sat with the instrument, and developing an interest in theology. According to Mgeladze, friends took him after that to the prominent Shio-Mgvime Monastery near Tbilisi for what was expected to be a short stay, but Mujiri remained there for five years, eventually returning to the capital as Monk Shio. According to his official biography, Shio became a novice at the monastery at the age of 22 and was ordained as a monk only days after turning 24. Shio, however, is hardly the only Georgian cleric who started out as an artist in the late Soviet years but ultimately ended up in the Holy Synod.

According to theologian Shota Kintsurashvili, Shio’s formative period at Shio-Mgvime Monastery coincided with theological isolationism within the Georgian Church, with the monastic groups in Shio-Mgvime, among others, promoting strong anti-ecumenical positions. The movement that would eventually lead the Georgian Church to withdraw from the World Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches, Kintsurashvili says, noting that Shio’s theological outlook was likely shaped by “this period of rigorism and isolationism.”

An archival photo circulated by Georgian media outlets showing Georgia’s fourth President Giorgi Margvelashvili (left), businessman Levan Vasadze (second from left), Patriarch Shio III (fourth from left), Irakli Kakabadze (fifth), and Giorgi Mgeladze (sixth) in their teenage years.Education and Clerical Career

Shio’s clerical career advanced over the years largely out of the public spotlight. He was ordained as a priest in 1996, became an igumen in 1998, and went on to hold senior clerical positions at churches in Tbilisi and the diaspora church in Moscow. In 2003, at the age of 34, he was appointed bishop of the Senaki and Chkhorotskhu diocese in western Georgia, while eventually also leading the Georgian Orthodox parish in Australia and New Zealand. He was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan in 2010 and, in 2017, was named by Ilia II as his Locum Tenens.

Mujiri graduated from Batumi Theological Seminary in 1999, later studying remotely at Moscow Theological Seminary before completing a doctorate at Moscow’s St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University in 2015. His thesis focused on the life of Georgian saint Monk Aleksi Shushania, whom Shio would also include in his address delivered during the extended church assembly, which led to his election as a Patriarch.

Not much else is known about Mujiri from the pre-Locum Tenens years.

In his rare surviving radio interview from 2000, which has resurfaced recently, 31-year-old Mujiri — then a head of Tbilisi’s Narikala Church — is heard speaking in a somewhat melancholic voice, extensively reflecting on love and describing God as one who loves humans rather than seeking to punish them. He also spoke about abandoning music for a spiritual path, recalling a “creative crisis” during which he “lost the sense of life” and was “unable to find it.” He said he came to see that “the only path toward saving one’s soul is Christ,” while everything else merely serves as a “means,” adding that the new path gave him “a sense of fullness.”

According to Kintsurashvili, the theologian, the doctoral degree places Shio III among the relatively few hierarchs in the Georgian Church with such academic credentials.

‘Not Russia’s Candidate, But Supported by Russia’

Ever since becoming the Locum Tenens, his Moscow background, as well as his ties to Moscow-connected ultraconservative businessman Levan Vasadze, flagged Mujiri among critics as a man aligned with the Russian church. Some cited the visit of Hilarion Alfeyev, Moscow church official, to Tbilisi days before his designation as Locum Tenens as a possible proof of external pressure behind his career. Bishop Zenon (Iarajauli), one of the Synod members critical of Mujiri, suggested in his remarks with Formula TV shortly before the patriarchal election that Shio “was not Russia’s candidate, but Russia supports him.”

In the weeks before Shio’s election, Moscow’s clerical and official circles repeatedly demonstrated interest in succession. First, Russia’s foreign intelligence accused Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew of meddling with the process, while Moscow’s Patriarch Kirill later expressed hopes that the Georgian Church under the new Patriarch would not change its stance on refraining from recognizing Ukrainian autocephaly.

Since Ilia II’s death, however, Shio III has not demonstrated any particular favoritism toward the Russian Church. Observers noted that the Russian delegation largely remained in the background during ceremonial services both at Ilia II’s funeral and during the festive services following Shio III’s enthronement. Representatives of Western Orthodox churches, on the other hand, received more prominent roles and greater visibility, including Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew, who conducted the funeral service for the late Ilia II. Shio III also spoke by phone with the Constantinople Patriarch on May 17, during which Bartholomew reportedly invited him to Constantinople in the “near future.”

But there have been separate concerns over Shio III’s perceived alignment with the increasingly repressive and conservative rule of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party. The perceptions stem from the Church’s statements in recent years endorsing GD’s policies, as well as allegations that, following Ilia II’s death, there has been a coordinated campaign by pro-ruling party circles in favor of Shio III’s candidacy. In 2019, Bishop Iakob of Bodbe accused Georgian Dream government officials, led by then Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, of efforts to unseat Ilia II and replace him with Shio Mujiri as a patriarch.

Shio III’s sermons and remarks regarding abortion, which he fiercely opposes, including by floating legislative moves, as well as gender views stressing women’s role as “mother and wife,” have fueled further worries, especially amid the ruling party’s growing record in instrumentalizing conservative views for its political gains.

Shio III surrounded by Orthodox Church hierarchs during his enthronement ceremony in Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, Mtskheta, May 12, 2026. Photo: Nino Sozashvili/Public Relations Department of Georgian PatriarchateHeavy Cross to Bear

There is broad agreement that the path ahead will not be easy for the new Patriarch.

For years to come, Shio III is expected to struggle to come from under the shadow of Ilia II, who had attained an almost saint-like stature during his lifetime, to rule the Church that, too, is set to emerge from decades of single dominant rule. That will probably lead to a push for greater pluralism and overdue reforms in Church governance. Both of his rivals in the patriarchal race outlined their own visions for change, including a stronger social role for the Church and revisiting the governing statute that fueled controversy during the succession process. No such vision has been presented by Shio ahead of the vote.

Those controversies may also have undermined, at least in part, perceptions of Shio’s legitimacy. Although he secured victory in the first round, the new Patriarch received 22 votes from the 39-member Synod in an election marred by the exclusion of two strong contenders based on an interpretation of the governing statute containing the vague criterion of “theological education.” It could damage both the Church’s reputation and Shio’s own authority if he fails to find a common ground with more than one-third of the hierarchs who did not vote for him.

His main work, however, is expected to be with the parish.

Although the Georgian Orthodox Church has for years remained the country’s most trusted and influential non-state institution, and massive crowds attended Ilia II’s wake, there is also a growing sense that some of that influence could be slowly waning, regardless of the new Patriarch’s personality. Personal appeal, however, may still matter more than ever: assuming his patriarchal throne, Shio faces a politically divided society, where divisions have inevitably seeped into the more than 80 percent of the population that identifies with Orthodox Christianity.

The Patriarch has yet to develop a warmer, more personal, and empathetic appeal that could draw broader public confidence. His tone has remained relatively strict, and his voice less distinctive compared to his predecessor’s deep, measured, and wise manner of speaking. In his first sermon as a Patriarch, Shio spoke about the need to “throw open the doors of the Church to everyone.” However, his remarks days later, on May 17, in which he said that families carrying the “sin” of abortion are doomed and warned against Georgians being outnumbered by “other peoples,” drew backlash over alienating and divisive framing. Then, two days later, he met, after repeated requests, with the parents of children diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, whose appeals for access to modern treatments have been repeatedly rejected by the authorities. The Church pledged to get involved in seeking a solution.

Depending on the course Shio III ultimately takes, he may come to be seen either as the figure held responsible for the Church’s declining influence or as the one credited with transforming it into a more socially oriented, pluralistic, and dynamic institution with greater flexibility in responding to contemporary challenges.

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