Armenian Apostolic Church
The Armenian Apostolic Church is the autocephalous national church of Armenia. Part of Oriental Orthodoxy, it is one of the most ancient Christian churches. The Armenian Apostolic Church uses the Armenian Rite. The Kingdom of Armenia was the first state in history to adopt Christianity as its official religion during the rule of King Tiridates III, of the Arsacid dynasty in the early 4th century.
According to tradition, the church originated in the missions of Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus in the 1st century. St. Gregory the Illuminator was the first official primate of the church. It is sometimes referred to as the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, Armenian Church or Armenian Gregorian Church.
The Armenian Apostolic Church should not be confused with the fully distinct Armenian Catholic Church, which is an Eastern Catholic Church in communion with the See of Rome.
History
Origins and early church history
The Armenian Apostolic Church believes in apostolic succession through the apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus. According to tradition, the latter of the two apostles is said to have cured Abgar V of Edessa of leprosy with the Image of Edessa, leading to his conversion in AD 30. Thaddaeus was then commissioned by Abgar to proselytize throughout Armenia, where he converted King Sanatruk's daughter, who was eventually martyred alongside Thaddeus when Sanatruk later fell into apostasy. After this, Bartholomew came to Armenia, bringing a portrait of the Virgin Mary, which he placed in a nunnery he founded over a former temple of Anahit. Bartholomew then converted the sister of Sanatruk, who once again martyred a female relative and the apostle who converted her. Both apostles ordained native bishops before their execution, and some other Armenians had been ordained outside of Armenia by James the Just. Scholars including Bart Ehrman, Han J.W. Drijvers, and Walter Bauer dismiss the conversion of Abgar V as fiction.According to Eusebius and Tertullian, Armenian Christians were persecuted by kings Axidares, Khosrov I, and Tiridates III, the last of whom was converted to Christianity by Gregory the Illuminator. Ancient Armenia was the first state to adopt Christianity as a state religion, which has been referred to by Nina Garsoïan as "probably the most crucial step in its history." This conversion distinguished it from its Iranian and Mazdean roots and protected it from further Parthian influence. According to Mary Boyce, the acceptance of Christianity by the Arsacid-Armenian rulers was partly in defiance of the Sassanids.
When King Tiridates III made Christianity the state religion of Armenia between 300 and 301, it was not an entirely new religion there. It had penetrated the country from at least the third century, and may have been present even earlier.
Tiridates declared Gregory to be the first Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church and sent him to Caesarea to be consecrated. Upon his return, Gregory tore down shrines to idols, built churches and monasteries, and ordained many priests and bishops. While meditating in the old capital city of Vagharshapat, Gregory had a vision of Christ descending to the earth and striking it with a hammer. From that spot arose a great Christian temple with a huge cross. He was convinced that God intended him to build the main Armenian church there. With the king's help he did so in accordance with his vision, renaming the city Etchmiadzin, which means "the place of the descent of the Only-Begotten".
Initially, the Armenian Apostolic Church participated in the larger Christian world and was subordinated to the Bishop of Caesarea. Its catholicos was represented at the First Council of Nicea. St. Vrtanes I, the third Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church, sent a letter with specific questions to Macarius, the Orthodox Bishop of Jerusalem, taken to Jerusalem by a delegation of Armenian priests on the occasion of the Encaenia, in dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in September 335. In Macarius's letter to the Armenians in 335, it seeks to correct irregularities in the initiation rites of baptism and the eucharist in use in the Armenian Church by articulating the practices in Jerusalem. In so doing, it reveals the divergent forms being practiced in Armenia, which have strong echoes of old East Syriac Rite. Orthopraxy was conceived by Vrtanes and his Armenian colleagues in terms of liturgical performance in Jerusalem. In 353, King Papas appointed Catholicos Husik without first sending him to Caesarea for commissioning. The Armenian catholicos was still represented at the First Council of Constantinople.
As Gregory was consecrated by the bishop of Caesarea, he also accepted the Byzantine Rite. However, the Armenian Church, due to the influence of the Church in Edessa, the large presence of Syriacs in Armenia, as well as the number of Syriac priests that arrived in Armenia with Gregory, also cultivated the West Syriac or Antiochian Rite. Since Armenians at the time did not have an alphabet, its clergy learned Greek and Syriac. From this synthesis, the new Armenian Rite came about, which had similarities both with the Byzantine and the Antiochian Syriac rite.
Expansion of Armenian Christian identity
Christianity was strengthened in Armenia in the 5th century by the translation of the Bible into the Armenian language by the native theologian, monk, and scholar, Saint Mesrop Mashtots. Before the 5th century, Armenians had a spoken language, but no script. Thus, the Bible and liturgy were written in the Greek or Syriac scripts until Catholicos Sahak Part'ew commissioned Mesrop to create the Armenian alphabet, which he completed in. Subsequently, the Bible and liturgy were translated into Armenian and written in the new script. The translation of the Bible, along with works of history, literature and philosophy, caused a flowering of Armenian literature and a broader cultural renaissance.Although unable to attend the Council of Ephesus, Catholicos Isaac Parthiev sent a message agreeing with its decisions. However, non-doctrinal elements in the Council of Chalcedon caused certain problems to arise.
Miaphysitism spread from Syria to Armenia, from where it came to Georgia and Caucasian Albania.
In 609–610, the Third Council of Dvin was convened during the reign of Catholicos Abraham I of Aghbatank and Prince Smbat Bagratuni, with clergymen and laymen participating. The Georgian Church disagreed with the Armenian Church, having approved the Christology of Chalcedon. This council was convened to clarify the relationship between the Armenian and Georgian churches. After the council, Catholicos Abraham wrote an encyclical letter addressed to the people, blaming Catholicos Kurion of the Georgian Church and his adherents for the schism. The council never set up canons; it only deprived Georgians from taking communion in the Armenian Church.
Attempted reunion with the Greeks and Romans
By 862, the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch held the Council of Shirakavan with the Eastern Orthodox Church. The purpose of the council was to seek Christian unity and clarify Christological positions. Later in the 12th century, the Armenians held the Council of Hromkla to finalize an attempted reunion with the Eastern Orthodox Church.During the 15th century, the Armenian Church participated in the Council of Basel-Ferrara-Florence, which was an effort amongst the Roman Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox Churches at achieving unity. None of these councils resulted in any lasting, permanent reunification amongst the various Christian churches.
Russian and Ottoman persecution
By 1903, the Tsarist government of the Russian Empire moved to confiscate the property of the Armenian Church, only to be returned by 1905.During the First World War, the Armenian Church suffered persecution from the Ottoman Empire. The Armenian genocide occurred during the war, and both clergy and laity were persecuted and murdered in an effort to ethnically cleanse the region. During and after the Armenian genocide, the Armenian diaspora spread, bringing Armenian Apostolic Christianity with them.
On April 23, 2015, the Armenian Apostolic Church canonized all the victims of the Armenian genocide; this service is believed to be the largest canonization service in history. Approximately 1.5 million is the most frequently published number of victims, however, estimates vary from 700,000 to 1,800,000. It was the first canonization by the Armenian Apostolic Church in four hundred years.
Doctrine
Miaphysitism
Like all Oriental Orthodox churches, the Armenian Church has been historically referred to as miaphysis by both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox theologians because it rejected the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon, which condemned the belief of one incarnate nature of Christ by Eutyches. This formula is not followed by the Armenian church instead the church adheres to Miaphysitism which is different. The Armenian Church officially severed ties with Rome and Constantinople in 610, during the Third Council of Dvin where the Chalcedonian dyophysite christological formula was rejected.However, again like other Oriental Orthodox, the Armenian Apostolic Church argues that the identification as "monophysitism" is an incorrect description of its position. It considers the doctrine as taught by Eutyches and condemned at Chalcedon a heresy and disagrees with the formula defined by the Council of Chalcedon. The Armenian Church instead adheres to the doctrine defined by Cyril of Alexandria, considered as a saint by the Chalcedonian churches as well, who described Christ as being of one incarnate nature, where both divine and human nature are united. To distinguish this from Eutychian and other versions of monophysitism this position is called miaphysitism. Whereas the prefix "mono-" means "single, alone, only", thus emphasising the singular nature of Christ, "mia", simply means "one" unemphatically, and allows for a compound nature.
Ecumenically, the Armenian and Roman churches established a common Christological declaration. This was also done by the Coptic, Syriac Orthodox, and Malankara Orthodox churches.