Tbilisi, Georgia - When Georgia's short democratic experiment seemed near collapse last week amid flying tear gas canisters, rocks and rubber bullets, the nation's leaders, their opponents and the Georgian people looked to Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II, head of Georgia's Orthodox Church.
The patriarch addressed the nation on television, calling for an end to the violence and opening the churches as a refuge. And when the violence subsided, he offered to mediate between the government and the opposition.
As heir to a religious dynasty nearly 2,000 years old, the patriarch has been a unifying force through 30 years of political turmoil, poverty and war, even as one revolution after another, peaceful or otherwise, has toppled political leaders.
"If there is anything in this country that can be a guarantor of security, it is the patriarch," Tina Khidasheli, of the opposition Republican party, said in an interview days after a government-imposed state of emergency shut down independent media and curtailed political rights. "No one else has any authority anymore."
Though criticized on occasion for intolerance toward religious diversity, the patriarch, 74, enjoys enormous popularity in this mostly Orthodox Christian country of 4.6 million, where social problems and continued Soviet-era corruption have eaten away at the high public support that President Mikheil Saakashvili enjoyed when he came to power in 2003.
As the police and protesters clashed, and members of the government and opposition hurled insults last week, the patriarch entered the political fracas, going on television last Wednesday with a call for calm, while criticizing the conflicting parties as a father rebukes unruly children.
"Our people are not accustomed to being treated in such an insulting way," he said in an interview on Tuesday at his opulent residence here in the capital.
"I appeared on television to say that these methods cannot be used to solve problems," he said. "Thanks to God, dialogue is now under way."
As the patriarch spoke, Tbilisi's churches were opened to those seeking refuge from tear gas and police batons. Several hundred gathered in the basement of the Sameba Cathedral, a soaring, gold-domed edifice that commands this ancient city, and held an all-night vigil with the priests.
The patriarch acted similarly in April 1989, urging antigovernment protesters - in vain, it turned out - to seek shelter in churches as Soviet troops advanced on downtown Tbilisi. At least 20 demonstrators died and thousands were wounded when the soldiers attacked.
This time, the police, some of whom had callously beaten unarmed civilians, halted in the cathedral's shadow.
"No civilized country in the world" would send the police into a church, said Shota Utiashvili, director of the Department of Analysis at the Interior Ministry, though he justified the police crackdown as necessary to restore order.
After the violence, the patriarch presided over the first meeting of representatives from the government and opposition, calling for reconciliation and offering his blessing for continued negotiations. He also met with foreign diplomats.
For now, the streets of Tbilisi are calm. The Georgian Parliament formally approved a measure Thursday that will end the state of emergency on Friday at 7 p.m. Leaders of the opposition said in interviews that they did not plan to mount protests against the government in the coming days, saying that they needed time to regroup.
Both sides have vowed to fight their next battle Jan. 5, at the presidential polls.
"I think that the course Georgia has taken is in the direction of democracy," the patriarch said. "This has not changed and will continue."