In addition to the major churches in Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania, there are other smaller churches. The Church of Georgia was founded in the first century by St. Andrew the Apostle and remained so until the fourth century, when it spread and expanded at the hands of St. Nina, who came from Cappadocia (some consider St. Nina, “equal to the Apostles,” to be the founder of the Church in Georgia). It was affiliated with the Patriarchate of Antioch before becoming independent in the eighth century. In 1811, it was illegally stripped of its independence by the Emperor of Russia at that time and remained so until 1917, when its independence was restored. On the initiative of Ecumenical Patriarch Dimidros and the decision of the Holy Synod, it was elevated to the rank of Patriarchate on March 3, 1990, and is headed by the current Patriarch Ilia II, who holds the title of Catholicos of All Georgia.

The Patriarchate of Georgia has 27 bishops, 1,004 priests and 65 monasteries. Its parishioners number about five million. Christianity was treated violently in Georgia during the communist period, as the church was small in size. Here we recall a statement by Catholicos Kallistratos to an American journalist (Harrison Salisbury, a correspondent for the New York Times) in 1951: “I will give you some statistics from which you can draw your own conclusions. There are 100 open churches out of 2,455 existing churches, and there are as many working priests.” In 1965, the number of “working” churches did not exceed forty.