The future Catholicos-Patriarch was born Irakli Ghudushauri-Shiolashvili (Georgian: ირაკლი ღუდუშაური-შიოლაშვილი) on January 4, 1933 in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia. He is a descendant of an influential eastern Georgian mountain clan that has family ties with the former royal dynasty of the Bagrationi.