Metropolitan Anania (Japaridze)
of Manglisi and Tetritsqharo said that the Church of Georgia is
governed by a great figure, the Patriarch, whose equal the
Georgians had only a few in history. “His Holiness, our Patriarch
is a manifestation of the grace of the Most Holy Virgin, a gift to
our nation.” Metropolitan Ananias remembered the day of his
ordination as a hierarch, noting that he was one of the first
clergymen to have been ordained by the Patriarch as a bishop. He
emphasized that the Church had had to function in the most
difficult circumstances in Georgia at the time. According to
Metropolitan Anania, His Holiness, the Patriarch commissioned then
many clergymen and scholars to study ecclesiastical issues. His
Eminence noted that His Holiness was the figure with whose efforts
autocephaly had been regained to the Church of Georgia and that his
merit is the greatest of all in the existence of the independent
Georgia. Our Patriarch’s contribution is invaluable, "it is the
whole age," he said.