Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nakhchivan


The Catholic Archdiocese of Nakhchivan was a Latin Catholic diocese in Azerbaijan, located in the city of Nakhchivan, in modern-day Azerbaijan. In 1847, it was suppressed.
The last remains of its ancient cathedral of All Saints in the episcopal see were destroyed in the 1845 earthquake.

History

  • Established in 1318 as Diocese of Nakhijevan, on territory previously not covered by the Latin church, covering historical Armenia and present-day Azerbaijan, presumably exempt. It was the only Latin see in the region to survive the ravaging hordes of conqueror Tamerlane.
  • The Dominican Order, whose missionaries founded it, branched out there into a new associated congregation, the Fratres Unitores, which fielded all the clergy in the bishopric. From its 15th century peek with circa 700 friars in some 50 convents, by 1602 it shrinks to twelve convents pastorally serving circa 19,000 Catholic faithful. In the region of Julfa the catholic professing settlements were the villages of Saltagh, Kirna, and Aparan. In the neighboring region of Goghtn there was the village of Gandzak, and in central Nakhichevan the village of Jahuk.
  • By privileges, confirmed by Paul III's papal bulla Etsi ex debito on 28 February 1544, it could celebrate the Latin rite in Armenian language and its episcopate was chosen by an assembly representing the Dominican monasteries and the Armenian Catholic elite
  • Its actual see was moved in the 16th century to more central Aparan, closer to the actual Catholic communities. Under Safavid pressure the communities dwindled due to conversion to Islam and Turkification, masse conversions to Islam were noted in the 1650s In the Julfa villages in particular, by the 17th century diocesan activity seems effectively to have halted. Around 1620 Pope Gregory XV instigated the founding of a Dominican seminary in Abaran.
  • Elevated on 21 February 1633 as Archdiocese of Nakhchivan, but not Metropolitan, and indeed never had a suffragan.
  • Suppressed in 1847, apparently vacant since 1765, as its faithful had fled the country during the wars between Ottoman Turks and Safavid Persia.
  • It is without direct successor jurisdiction, but the last Archbishop took his flock to Smyrna, where their Armenian community flourished. Its former territories are presently part of the larger jurisdiction of the Apostolic Administration of the Caucasus and by the Apostolic Prefecture of Baku

    Episcopal ordinaries

;Bishops of Nachitschewan
;Archbishops of Nachitschewan