Shio III

His Holiness and Beatitude Shio, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, in the world Elizbar Mujiri, son of Teimuraz, was born on 1 February 1969 in Tbilisi. After finishing Tbilisi School No. 53 (he studied at a music college at the same time), from 1988 Elizbar Mujiri continued his studies at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire in the cello class. In his first year at the conservatoire he won the first republican competition for cellists, taking first place. In 1991 Elizbar Mujiri settled as a novice in the Monastery of Shiomghvime. On 5 February 1993 the novice Elizbar was tonsured a monk and given the name Shio. He was made refectorian of the monastery, and then its steward. In 1995 the monk Shio was ordained deacon, and in 1996 His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, ordained the hierodeacon Shio to the priesthood. In 1997 the hieromonk Shio was appointed rector of the Church of St George in Kldisubani, Tbilisi. In 1998 he graduated from the St John the Theologian Theological Seminary in Batumi and went on to study by correspondence at the Moscow Theological Academy. On 3 April 1998 the hieromonk Shio was raised to the rank of hegumen, with the right to wear the gold cross, and appointed rector of the Church of the Prophet Elijah. From 6 March 1999 the hegumen Shio served at the Anchiskhati church in Tbilisi, and from 20 September of the same year he was rector of the Church of St Nicholas at Narikala. From October 2001 he was rector of the Church of St George of the Georgian community in Moscow, studying at the same time at St Tikhon's Theological Institute in Moscow.

On 18 August 2003 the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church, meeting at Urbnisi, chose the hegumen Shio to lead the newly created Eparchy of Senaki and Chkhorotsku. On 6 September 2003, in the Patriarchal Cathedral of Sioni, the hegumen Shio gave his address on being named bishop:

“Your Holiness and Beatitude, Patriarch of all Georgia and merciful father, Your Eminences, honourable fathers, brothers and sisters beloved in Christ!

By the will of the Lord and on your nomination, the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church has determined that I be made bishop of the God-protected Eparchy of Senaki and Chkhorotsku.

First of all I ought, perhaps, to express to you my gratitude and joy; but I want to confess that in these days I think more of my own human weakness and unworthiness.

From Holy Scripture and the teaching of the Church it is known how great are the meaning and the responsibility of this ministry. A bishop continues the apostolic ministry, and he answers before God for the spiritual state of his eparchy, his flock and his clergy. He is called to be an example in word, in thought, in love, in humility, in faith, in self-sacrifice, in holiness, in prayer, in service and in every other virtue; and with this he must understand the questions of modern life well, and be able to answer some questions that never faced the clergy who laboured in the past. In this connection I will quote these words of St John Chrysostom: ‘A bishop who is made worthy of so glorious a ministry must be not only holy but exceedingly prudent and experienced in many things. He must know the affairs of the world no less than a layman, and yet be freer of everything than a monk who lives in the mountains; and since he governs public affairs as well as the Church's, he must also be a man of many parts,’ says St John Chrysostom. But the chief question, which holds every other within itself, is the Lord's question to the Apostle Peter: ‘Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?’ (John 21:17). And perhaps a bishop's labours, too, ought to be a constant showing forth of a yes to that question.

Because I am well aware of all this, my sense of my own infirmity and unreadiness grows the keener. Today as never before I feel how unfit I might prove for this great work, were it not for God's help and your prayers, blessing and support. At the same time I fear lest, because of my own feelings, I set myself against the holy will of the Lord, and so I entrust myself wholly to your spiritual discernment and great experience.

For my comfort I often recall the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Epistle of the Apostle Paul, where the Lord says that His strength is made perfect in weakness. I am greatly comforted too, Your Holiness, by the words of greeting you spoke after the session of the Holy Synod, when you said that a bishop can be chosen only by the will and the blessing of God. Beyond this I take heart from the well-known saying of the great Fathers, that a man should not himself seek to take up a heavier cross, but neither should he refuse it when the Church has need of it and it is offered to him with a blessing.

And so, seeing the will of God in the decision of the Holy Synod, with the greatest gratitude and obedience I bow my head before you and ask forgiveness for my unworthiness.

In these, the most important moments of my life, I want to offer glory and thanks to the Lord and to the All-holy Mother of God for the great mercy and love, the sense of which gives me strength, comfort and the greatest joy of my life.

I thank you personally, Your Holiness, for the great honour you bestow on me today. I thank you for your labours, which for me are a great example of high ministry; they stand before my eyes and have strengthened me all these years. I thank you as my spiritual father, for in the hardest stretches of my service in the Church I always felt your fatherly love and protection. Following your counsel and your blessing enabled me to bear with dignity the many difficulties I met in the course of my ministry.

It is the greatest honour for me, too, that you have allotted me service in the Eparchy of Senaki and Chkhorotsku in particular, whose people are known for their high culture and their faithfulness to the faith, and where such great holy things are kept as a part of the hand of St John the Baptist and the relics of the holy monk Alexis Shushania, to whose prayers I wish to commend my future ministry and all the people of the eparchy.

I thank you, Your Eminences and Your Graces, for the trust you have shown me and for the warm and kind regard which has always helped me and made my priestly ministry easier.

I want to thank, and to ask the help of, the clergy and monastics I have known in the monastery and in the city, whose good counsel and friendly support I shall always remember.

With great love and gratitude I want also to remember those people who came to me as to a spiritual father, and to ask their forgiveness and a place in their prayers.

Your Holiness and Beatitude, Your Eminences and Your Graces, standing before you today in this holy church, I ask once more for your forgiveness and your intercession for this great and holy ministry. I beseech you to strengthen your holy prayers and, through the laying-on of your most honourable hands, to call down the grace of the Holy Spirit to cleanse my unworthiness and to strengthen me in my new ministry, to the glory of the Lord and of the Orthodox Church. Amen!” (68, 2003, 9).

On 7 September, in the Patriarchal Cathedral of Svetitskhoveli, the hegumen Shio was consecrated bishop by His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II, Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia, with the members of the Holy Synod taking part. At the end of the Liturgy His Holiness and Beatitude addressed Bishop Shio:

“Your Grace, Bishop Shio of Senaki and Chkhorotsku, Your Graces, fathers, brothers and sisters,

God is with us!

Truly great is the Lord and marvellous are His works. The Prophet David says: ‘Great art Thou, O Lord, and marvellous are Thy works, and no word sufficeth to hymn Thy wonders.’ The providence of God is beyond our understanding. We must simply try to do the will of God and remember that the Lord reigns — reigns in heaven and on earth, reigns in our hearts and minds.

Today the will of God has been done — the decision of the Holy Synod has been carried out. In my view, this decision is not inferior to the document adopted at the Council of Ruisi-Urbnisi.

As you know, in the church at Urbnisi, at the historic session of the Holy Synod, five new candidates for the episcopate were named. Today the fifth bishop — the bishop of Senaki and Chkhorotsku — has been consecrated. Bishop Shio, this is a great grace and mercy of God; and when the Lord gives a man great grace, humility and obedience must grow in him. If they do not, then because of the man's pride the grace of God cannot bear good fruit, and he may even perish. The one way of salvation is, before all else, the true Orthodox faith, love and obedience; this is the way the Lord has set. It is by this way that you must walk, Your Grace, from this day to the last minute of your life; it alone will bring you to the Kingdom of Heaven.

It is not by chance that we have consecrated you bishop of Senaki and Chkhorotsku. This is a great responsibility. The very name of the town — Senaki, ‘the cell’ — tells us that great men laboured there. It was the cell of many men of the Church. Let us recall if only the great ascetics of recent times, who brought renown to all Georgia. Today the whole Orthodox world knows their holy names.

In Senaki laboured the holy Father Alexis Shushania, the monastics Favsto and Epsime, Father Konstantine Kvaraia, my great teacher Father Shio Dzidzava, and many others. So, Bishop Shio, you are going to a grace-filled and historic eparchy, and you must do everything to increase and strengthen still further the grace that dwells in it. I know the people of Senaki very well, I have met them many times, and I know that the whole population will receive you with great love; the very fact that the people of Senaki have come today especially for the consecration of their eparchy's bishop shows that you will have a loving flock. But at the same time you must remember that the rank of bishop is a martyr's; a bishop always stands before trial. He is answerable before the Lord not only for his own soul but for the clergy and the whole flock. So you must be strengthened by prayer, fasting, ascetic struggle and, above all, by humility and obedience. Peace and joy await you. And now receive the crozier, the symbol of a bishop's grace, and bless the Eparchy of Senaki and Chkhorotsku and all Georgia.

As I have said, Senaki, the villages around it and the whole eparchy are a grace-filled corner of Georgia. In recent years great work was done in this eparchy by Bishop Grigol, who laboured there. He is now bishop of Poti and Khobi. I want, in the name of the people of Senaki, in the name of the Holy Synod and of the whole flock, to thank him for this great labour, and to gladden you with the news that he has been raised to the rank of archbishop. May God bless and strengthen Archbishop Grigol.

May God bless you and gladden you. Once more I congratulate you on the gift of this great grace which the Lord has sent down upon us. May peace, mercy, joy and love abide with you and in all Georgia. May God bless all Georgia and make her whole again!

God is with us!”

On 25 December 2007 Bishop Shio was awarded the Order of St George. In 2009 Bishop Shio was raised to the rank of archbishop.

On 2 August 2010 he was appointed chorbishop to the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia.

On 23 November 2017 he was appointed locum tenens of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia.

On 21 June 2018, at a session of the Holy Synod, he was awarded the right to wear a diamond cross on his skufia.

On 18 March 2026 the Synod confirmed Metropolitan Shio of Senaki and Chkhorotsku as locum tenens of the throne of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia.

On 11 May 2026, at the 14th Extended Council of the Georgian Orthodox Church, the Holy Synod elected Metropolitan Shio (Mujiri) Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia by 22 votes.

On 12 May 2026, the day of the commemoration of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, the enthronement of His Holiness and Beatitude Shio III, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Archbishop of Mtskheta and Tbilisi and Metropolitan of Bichvinta and Tskhum-Abkhazia, took place in the Patriarchal Cathedral of Svetitskhoveli.