Career
His full title was His Holiness and Beatitude, Archbishop of Mtskheta-Tbilisi and Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia. Born in the village of Mirotsminda (now Kharagauli Municipality, Imereti), David became a priest in 1927 and a bishop in 1956. David V’s ascension to the patriarchal see was followed by some controversy.
Furthermore, Georgian dissidents suspected that the Soviet security arm (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security)) was involved in David’s election by rigging it and destroying Ephraim"s will, which had allegedly endorsed Bishop Ilia of Sukhumi and Abkhazia as his successor.
The Georgian nationalist underground claimed in their samizdat publications that corruption and moral depravity flourished in the church under David V. He was also accused of being involved, along with Georgian Communist party officials and the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security), in the robbery of Georgian church treasures. David V died in Tbilisi and was buried at the Sioni Cathedral in 1977.
He was succeeded by Ilia II, whom the Soviets had allegedly tried to keep out of office.
