Patriarch of Georgia asks Russia to give out remains of Georgian kings for reburial

The Catholicos of Georgia Elias II has appealed to Russian leaders asking them to give out the remains of two Georgian kings, whose tombs are in Astrakhan, for reburial.

"In their time, these Georgian kings bequeathed to bury them at homeland; and we asked the President of the Russian Federation and Patriarch Kirill to allow us to do it," said Elias II.

He has noted that the Russian party had been presented with the necessary documents and the issue was "under consideration". Currently, the tombs of Georgian kings from the Bagrationi dynasty – Vakhtang VI and Teimuraz II – who spent, for different reasons, their last years in Russia during the Ottoman and Persian domination in Georgia, are in the Dormition Cathedral in Astrakhan, the ITAR-TASS writes.

It is not for the first time that Georgia asks for reburial of her kings. In 2002, President Eduard Shevardnadze announced that the then Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexis II had agreed to give out the remains, the portal "Georgia.orthodoxy" reports.

Then, Tbilisi defined the place for the reburial – the Holy Trinity Temple, now the main cathedral of Georgia, which was built on donations of the opposition politician Bidzina Ivanishvili. However, the ceremony did not take place without any explanation, the "Ast-news" reports.