The National Bank of Georgia (NBG, the country’s central bank and monetary regulator) will mint gold and silver commemorative coins to mark 1,700 years since Christianity was declared the state religion of the ancient Kingdom of Iberia, the regulator confirmed after its president met the country’s newly enthroned patriarch. The design will be developed together with the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate, and the issue is tied to a national program of events running through the autumn.
The coins themselves are a modest gesture. What they sit inside is not: a government-and-church celebration that has become one of the central political projects of Georgia’s ruling party in a year when the country has put its European Union accession on ice.
Gold and Silver for an Epochal Year
The decision followed a recommendation from a joint government and church commission set up to prepare the anniversary celebrations. NBG President Natia Turnava met Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Shio III on Friday to discuss the coins, and the central bank said their concept and design will be worked out with the Patriarchate.
The regulator described the anniversary as an “epochal event,” placing it alongside the two grandest commemorations in its catalogue. The commission preparing the year is co-chaired by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and the patriarch, a pairing that signals how closely the state and the church are working on the program.
Commemorative coins are routine business for the bank, which runs the central bank’s collection coin programme covering sporting events, historic rulers and cultural milestones. What sets this issue apart is the involvement of the Patriarchate in the design and the scale of the surrounding celebration.
The Coins Join a Long Numismatic Tradition
The bank framed the new issue by comparing it to two earlier landmark series, a tell about how it ranks the occasion. Both prior anniversaries were marked with special coins, and both carried civilisational weight in the official telling of Georgian history.
| Anniversary marked | Theme | Standing in NBG framing |
|---|---|---|
| 3,000 years of Georgian statehood | National sovereignty and antiquity | Landmark issue |
| 2,000 years since the birth of Christ | Christian millennium | Landmark issue |
| 1,700 years of Christianity as state religion | National conversion under Iberia | “Epochal event” |
By grouping the conversion anniversary with statehood and the Christian millennium, the bank is telling collectors and citizens alike that this is meant to be remembered as a foundational date, not a routine commemorative.
A Date History Cannot Pin Down
The precision of “1,700 years” hides a problem: historians have never fixed the exact year. The conversion took place in the early fourth century in Kartli, the eastern Georgian kingdom known in classical sources as Iberia, after the preaching of Saint Nino persuaded the then-pagan King Mirian III to adopt the faith for his realm.
Scholarly estimates for when Christianity became the official religion range between 324 and 337 AD. The figure of 326 is the one most often used for chronological reference, which is how the calendar arithmetic lands on 2026 as the round-number year.
None of that ambiguity has slowed the program. Georgian Dream, the party that has governed since 2012, declared 2026 the official year of celebration, and the symbolic date has been treated as settled in state messaging since January.
That gap between a contested date and a confident commemoration is part of why the project reads, to its critics, as a political choice rather than a historical one.
Why 2026 Became Tbilisi’s Year of Christianity
The anniversary has moved well beyond a coin order. It now anchors a calendar of state events, and the same officials who run the government sit at the head of the organising structure. The program rolls out across most of the year:
- 26 May: Independence Day celebrations were dedicated to the 1,700th anniversary, folding a national holiday into the religious theme.
- 26 May to 14 October: large-scale events tied to the anniversary are scheduled to run across the country.
- Through 2026: a joint organising committee headed by the prime minister and the patriarch coordinates the commemorations, with the commemorative coins as one deliverable.
The timing matters. The push comes while the government has frozen accession talks with Brussels and is leaning hard on Orthodox identity as a marker of what it calls national values, a theme that has run through its rhetoric since the 2024 parliamentary campaign.
The Church-State Line Under a New Patriarch
The celebration arrives during a transition at the top of the church, which raises the stakes for how far the state-and-faith partnership goes.
From Ilia II to Shio III
Ilia II, the longest-serving patriarch in the church’s roughly 1,500-year history, died in Tbilisi on 17 March 2026 at the age of 93. On 11 May the Holy Synod elected Metropolitan Shio as his successor; he took the name Shio III and was enthroned at Svetitskhoveli Cathedral the next day.
A new patriarch means the contours of the relationship between the church and the government are still being set, and the anniversary year is the first major test of how the two institutions will share the stage.
A 2002 Concordat, Not a State Religion
The Georgian Orthodox Church already holds a privileged legal position through a constitutional agreement signed in 2002, which recognises its special role in the country’s history. Georgia’s constitution also defines the state as secular and guarantees freedom of religion.
That settlement came under pressure in 2024, when Georgian Dream floated recognising Orthodox Christianity as the state religion. The church itself was wary. A senior cleric questioned the need to disturb the existing balance during that debate.
There is no ground yet to change the legal model that exists today between the state and the church.
Those words came from Giorgi Zviadadze, a senior figure in the Georgian Orthodox Church, during the 2024 discussions, when other clergy warned that formal state-religion status could compromise the church’s independence rather than protect it. Carnegie scholars have documented how the Orthodox Church’s role in a changing Georgian society has long mixed deep public trust with political leverage.
Critics See a Conservative Wedge
For supporters, the year honours a defining moment. Kobakhidze has called Christianity one of the main pillars of Georgian identity, and backers argue the conversion shaped the country’s culture and civilisation more than any other single event.
Some political observers and civil society groups read the emphasis differently. Their concerns cluster around a few points:
- The anniversary is being used to advance a broader conservative political agenda rather than a purely historical commemoration.
- The Christian framing is set up as a contrast with liberal Western values at a moment of friction with Europe.
- The rhetoric could revive pressure to grant the church a more formal constitutional status, eroding the secular guarantees already on the books.
That friction is not abstract. Brussels has called Georgia a “candidate country in name only” after a foreign agents law took effect in June 2025, and analysts at the Council on Foreign Relations have traced how Georgia’s foreign agents law and democratic backsliding have strained ties with the West, with the legal timeline laid out in the UK parliament’s briefing on the foreign influence law. A coin issue does not change any of that. It does show, in metal, where the government wants the national story pointed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What will the commemorative coins mark?
They mark 1,700 years since Christianity was proclaimed the state religion of the ancient Kingdom of Iberia, the eastern Georgian realm also known as Kartli. The National Bank of Georgia will issue them in gold and silver, with the design developed alongside the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate.
What year did Georgia adopt Christianity as a state religion?
The exact year is unknown. Historians place the conversion under King Mirian III somewhere between 324 and 337 AD, and 326 is the figure most commonly used for reference, which produces the 1,700-year count celebrated in 2026.
Who is organising the 2026 anniversary celebrations?
A joint government and church commission is co-chaired by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and Catholicos-Patriarch Shio III. Large-scale events run from 26 May through 14 October across the country.
Is Orthodox Christianity the official state religion of Georgia today?
No. Georgia’s constitution defines the country as a secular state and guarantees freedom of religion, while recognising the special historical role of the Georgian Orthodox Church through a constitutional agreement signed in 2002. A 2024 proposal to make Orthodox Christianity the state religion was met with caution from the church itself.
Why is the anniversary politically sensitive?
Critics argue the ruling party is using the Christian theme to advance a conservative agenda and to contrast Georgia with liberal Western values, at a time when the government has frozen EU accession talks and faces criticism over a foreign agents law in force since June 2025.
