The sun set as if the light itself had closed its eyes and covered the city with a heavy veil of silence.
The city slowly sank into stillness, at the heart of which stood the grey-haired Sioni Cathedral, quiet, burdened, as if it too was mourning...
The air was filled with unspoken words. With bowed heads, we walked silently toward Sameba, along a path filled with an endless stream of people.
It felt as though each of us carried our own cross and walked the road of Golgotha, not only with pain, but also with the faith that death is not the end, that there is victory of life over death.
One grief united us, though each of us felt it in our own way. It was not only sorrow, it was a loss that touched the entire nation at once.
It seemed as if nature itself had fallen silent. Sioni stood in silence...
The flow of the Mtkvari no longer resembled sound, it felt more like tears than water. The sky too had grown heavy, dark and clouded, as sorrowful as human hearts.
And the people were silent...
A silence fell that spoke louder than any voice...
Georgia was orphaned...
The Georgian nation was orphaned...
The entire Orthodox world was orphaned...
Our university was also orphaned, a place in whose creation and strengthening the prayers and blessing of His Holiness were deeply embedded...
What was he to me?
Bent in body, yet with a spirit as firm as rock...
Grey-haired, calm, with a gentle voice...
A man who preached not with words, but with love.
In his gaze there was peace. In his voice, paternal warmth. Even in his silence, there was faith.
He was a man standing between heaven and earth, as if an angel among people...
His very existence was a prayer, silent, yet all-embracing.
The blessing of his warm, divine hand remains in our hearts to this day.
And his words continue to live beyond time.
We mourn...
Yet within this mourning there is gratitude and even joy, because you have not left completely. You remain in the sound of bells ringing in the church, in the lit candles, in silent prayers, and in the path you showed us, the path we must now follow.
The sunny night has set...
And where once words were heard, now stands prayer.
My heart is filled with two feelings at once, sorrow and joy...
Sorrow, because I am orphaned... I have lost a spiritual father, comfort, and an earthly angel...
And joy, because I had the blessing to live in your era, to be part of that which your gracious hand touched...
And now...
We have one more guardian angel in heaven.
An era has ended...
An era that transformed the spiritual life of a nation...
An era that shaped a part of our identity...
Today the emptiness is shared by all, yet it is precisely now that a new path begins, steeper and more difficult, which we must walk in order to turn your guidance, blessing, and love into life itself.
Farewell!.. You who filled our lives with love... You who remained a prayer even in silence...
We love you, Patriarch!..
Lika Toklikishvili
SANGU Student
გააზიარე
