ARMENIAN CHRISTIANITY

ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH (ORIENTAL ORTHODOX)

Although an ancient national tradition places the origins of Christianity in Armenia as far back as apostolic times, it is certain that until the end of the 3d century the doctrine of Christ had made little progress and the country had no ecclesiastical hierarchy in the strict sense. Christianity became the state religion c. a.d. 300, when the great apostle of Armenia, St. gregory the illuminator preached the gospel there. This noble descendant of the royal family, who had been trained in Christian doctrine from childhood and was consecrated by the bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, quickly won over King Tiridates III to Christianity, as well as a large portion of the population. He was helped in his work of evangelization by Greek and Syrian missionaries whom he had invited to Armenia from Asia Minor (Cappadocia) and Syria (Edessa), respectively.

The invention of the Armenian alphabet at the beginning of the 5th century by St. Mesrop (d. 439), Doctor of the Armenian Church, resulted in the substitution of the national language for two foreign languages, Greek and Syrian. Holy Scripture and the most important works of the Fathers of the above-mentioned Churches, as well as the liturgies then in existence in Armenia, were translated into the Armenian language. This was done during the reign of the Catholicos Sahag the Great (387–438).

The Armenian Church was suspected, at least nominally, of monophysitism by unfortunate political circumstances. Caught as a political pawn between the opposing armies of the Byzantine and Persian Empires, the Armenians were unable to attend the Councils of ephesus (431) and chalcedon (451). The decrees were translated into their new but undeveloped national language, and they saw only heretical teachings as the result of the Councils' acts. It was an easy step for the Synod of Dvin (506–507) to accept the Henoticon of Emperor zeno and condemn formally the Council of Chalcedon in order to receive political protection from the Monophysite-tainted Byzantine emperor. Attempts by the Byzantine Church under the emperors Heraclius (610–641) and Justinian II (685–695, 705–711) failed to convince the Armenian Church to accept Chalcedon.

The kingdom of Armenia had been for centuries the victim of attacks by the Byzantines, the Persians, and later by the Turks. It dissolved with the destruction of its capital, Ani. The catholicoi (comparable to a patriarch) moved their see of residence first to Ashtishat, then finally in 1293 to Sis, cilicia (Turkey), to set up New Armenia. Here, near the Holy Lands fought for by the Latin Crusaders, the Armenians came into close contact with Roman Catholicism and a communion with the See of Rome was actually effected that lasted from 1198 until 1375. Internal strifes within the Armenian Church of Cilicia then split the Church into many factions and dissolved the union with Rome. From the 15th century it had four competitors for the legitimate Armenian lineage. In 1113 the bishop of Aghtamar, on an island in Lake Van (Armenia), declared himself the legitimate successor of the ancient See of Etchmiadzin and took the title of catholicos. An Armenian bishop of Jerusalem in 1311 took the title of patriarch. A rival group in 1441 moved back to former Armenia from Cilicia and set up the seat of a catholicate at Etchmiadzin while the legitimate catholicos remained in the See of Sis in Cilicia. In 1461 Mu[symbol omitted]ammad II recognized at Constantinople a new Armenian patriarchate. Thus in the 15th century there were three catholicates: the one at Etchmiadzin enjoying the greatest authority and largest following, and two others at Sis and Aghtamar. Two other patriarchates split the Armenian Church further, one at Constantinople and the other at Jerusalem.

The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in a renaissance of the Armenian Apostolic Church in its homeland, the independent Republic of Armenia. Today, the Armenian Apostolic Church is divided into four jurisdiction: two catholicosates—Etchmiadzin and Cilicia—that are juridically independent but in full communion with each other, and two patriarchates—Jerusalem and Constantinople—that are dependent on Etchmiadzin on spiritual matters. As the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, the Armenian Catholicos of Etchmiadzin is the principal spiritual and temporal leader of the Church. The catholicos of Etchmiadzin has a primacy of honor over the other ruling prelates but jurisdiction only in his own catholicate. His jurisdiction covers the Republic of Armenia, as well as much of the former Soviet Union and the Armenian diaspora, which includes Iraq, India, Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Europe, Oceania, Southeast Asia, and the Americas. The Catholicos of Cilicia is based in Antelias, Lebanon and has jurisdiction over Armenians in Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus, Iran, Syria and Greece. The Patriarchate of Jerusalem is responsible for the churches and other holy shrines belonging to the Armenian Church in Jerusalem. The Patriarchate of Constantinople covers modern-day Turkey and the Greek island of Crete. The tiny catholicate of Aghtamar was dissolved in 1915 and is no longer extant.

Canonical Sources. After the monk Mesrop invented the Armenian written language, scholars busied themselves in the 5th century translating the Bible and liturgical and canonical books into Armenian. The acts of the Councils of nicaea i (325) and Ephesus (431) were thus introduced as a basic canonical source for the growing Armenian Church. A series of early canons proper to the Armenian Church is attributed to Sahag the Great, a 4th-century catholicos; in it attention is given to the office of chorbishop, an inspector sent by the bishop to visit the far-distant places of the diocese. Two important, early councils, Chahapivan (447) and Vagarshapat (491), are significant for Armenian Christianity. The first legislated 20 canons setting the catholicate on a solid foundation of independence, and the second rejected the Council of Chalcedon (451) and made the rift from the Byzantine Church definitive. Gradually the canons of Council of constantinople i (381) and those of the local synods accepted by the Byzantine Church in general, such as Ancyra, Neocaesarea, Antioch, Gangres, Sardis, and Laodicea, were translated from the Greek and incorporated as a basis of the Armenian canon law. Other traditional sources, such as the 85Canons of the Apostles, the 90 Canons of St. Athanasius, and the 50 Canons of St. Basil, were incorporated; so also were certain canons proper to the Armenian Church, such as the 39 Canons attributed to the catholicos Narses Achtarak (548–577), those of the Councils of Dvin (645) (719), and those of Partav (771).

Byzantine influence was felt in the field of canonical sources, depending on the political events at any given period. At one time even the canons of the Council of Chalcedon were accepted along with the 22 canons of nicaea ii (787). Historians claim that Catholicos John Otznetzi (717–728) was the first to collect all the canons then in force into one volume. It is certain at least that these became fixed in some sort of a compendium in the 8th century. The canonical sources from then until the Crusades did not change radically.

Influence from the Crusades. With the establishment of New Armenia in Cilicia (Turkey) and the arrival of the Latin Crusaders in the Holy Land, new contact was made with Rome and a new influence entered into the canonical legislation of the Armenian Church. An important work at this time was compiled by the monk Mechitar Goch at the end of the 12th century. He strove to compile a book on jurisprudence, but succeeded only in collecting and commenting on canonical texts that seemed to him useful. His Book of Judicial Cases was a standard work for all Armenian canonists. In 1198, when Rome recognized the Catholicos Gregory VI, the door was opened both to a religious renaissance and to radical changes in canonical legislation. The Councils of Sis (1204, 1246, 1307, 1342) and of Adana (1316) inaugurated many Latinizations into the liturgy. This was the basic reason for the hostility of the Armenian monks of Jerusalem, who elected their own patriarch in 1311. After the schism in 1441, when a group left Sis to establish a seat at Etchmiadzin and the two principal catholicates and two patriarchates were formed, no new canonical additions were added to the ancient sources.

ARMENIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH (EASTERN CATHOLIC)

The reunion with Rome of the Armenians in Cilicia, lasted from 1198 until 1375. The Dominican Order was engaged in keeping alive the union when it began to flounder in the 14th century. A native Armenian order, the Friars of Unity, founded in 1320, was a peculiar adaptation of Armenian monasticism to the Dominican rule, but was gradually absorbed entirely into the Dominican Order. The bull of reunion of the Council of Florence (1439), Exsultate Deo, did not effect a lasting union but did lay down norms of discipline and liturgical practices that later were put into effect by the Armenian Catholics. There had always been an occasional catholicos united with Rome; but after the union of 1375 was dissolved, there was no Catholic Armenian Church until the Armenian Catholic bishop of Alep, Abraham Ardzivean, was elected Catholicos of Cilicia (Sis). However, he was unable to return as catholicos to Cilicia (Sis) after Benedict XIV confirmed him in Rome in 1742 because a rival was appointed in his stead. He moved his seat to Kraim in Lebanon, and his successor transferred the see to Bzommar, which then became the center for the Armenian Catholics, who were scattered throughout Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Egypt.

The Armenian Catholics in various parts of the Ottoman Empire were subject to the Latin apostolic vicar, but under the Ottoman millet system, that provided for the administrative autonomy of minorities under their religious leaders, all Armenians were place under the jurisdiction of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople. This caused friction and even bitter persecution of the Armenian Catholics from 1700 until 1830. The Ottoman government, through French insistence, granted the Catholics in Turkey civil and religious freedom under the single leadership of the Catholic archbishop of Constantinople, whom the Turks wanted as patriarch. Since there could hardly be two simultaneous Catholic Armenian patriarchs, the problem was solved in the Synod of Bzommar through the election of the primate of Constantinople as Catholicos of Cilicia in 1867. Pope Pius IX confirmed the union of the two Catholic Armenian sees in his bull Reversurus, but this only led to a schism of several bishops and many monks of St. Anthony under the leadership of Father Malachy Ormanian. Further internal disputes and persecutions by the Turks almost completely dissolved the Catholic Armenian Church. A decree from Rome in 1928 transferred the patriarchal seat from Constantinople to Beirut, and Constantinople (Istanbul) became an archbishopric.

From the 14th century there had already existed an Armenian bishopric in Galicia (Ukraine) with residence at Lvov. In 1635 Abp. Nicholas Torosowicz became a Catholic, and thus this archbishopric continued to be Catholic until 1944. During World War II the faithful were dispersed, many having gone to Silesia, in East Germany.

The Armenian Catholic Church suffered severe losses during World War I, especially in the dioceses of Turkey, where great numbers of Catholics were put to death for the faith by the Turks. The Church was reorganized in 1928 through a synod held in Rome. The Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians became the supreme leader of the Armenian Catholic Church. The patriarchal seat is located in Beirut, Lebanon. Constantinople (Istanbul) became a simple archbishopric.

As was the case with the other Eastern Catholic Churches, the Armenian Catholic Church was suppressed under Soviet rule. When the Republic of Armenia regained its independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Armenian Catholic Church re-emerged in its homeland.

Bibliography: Acta et decreta concilii nationalis Armenorum Romae habiti anno Domini MDCCCCXI (Rome 1914). a. balgy, Historia doctrinae catholicae inter Armenos … (Vienna 1878), in Armenian and Lat. v. hatzuni, Cenno storico e culturale sulla nazione Armena (Venice 1940). r. janin, Les Églises Orientales et les Rites Orientaux (Paris 1955). a. a. king, The Rites of Eastern Christendom, 2 v. (London 1950). g. zananiri, Pape et patriarches (Paris 1962). g. amaduni, ed., Disciplina Armena: Testi vari di diritto canonico armeno (Fonti CICO, ser. 1, fasc. 7; 1932). p. hatzuni, "Disciplina Armena" in Studi storici sulle fonti del diritto canonico orientale (ibid. fasc. 8; 1932) 139–168. c. de clercq, "Notae historicae circa fontes iuris particularis Orientalium Catholicorum," Apollinaris 4 (1931) 409–427; t. e. dowling, The Armenian Church (The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 1910). r. roberson, The Eastern Christian Churches: A Brief Survey, 6th ed (Rome 1999).

[j. kaftandjian/eds.]