Armenian Church History

The History of Armenian Church

Armenian history cannot be fully digested without understanding the influence that Christianity and the Armenian Church have over all aspects of Armenian life. The Armenian Apostolic Church is the world's oldest National Church and is one of the most ancient Christian communities. By establishing this church, Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD (Ananyan 2016). According to the ancient tradition that is well supported by historical evidence, Christianity was evangelized in Armenia as early as the second half of the first century by the two disciples of Jesus Christ, namely, St. Thaddeus (John 14:22-24) and St. Bartholomew (John 1:43-51). During the first three
centuries, Christianity in Armenia was a hidden religion under heavy persecution (Nersessian 2015). Although church historian Eusebius of Caesaria (c. 260-c.339) refers to Meruzhanes, a bishop of Armenia amidst the third century, it was not until the start of the fourth century, in 301, that Christianity was officially accepted by the Armenians as the state religion. This proclamation was the result of the evangelist action of St. Gregory the Illuminator (240-332).
St Gregory the Illuminator, a Parthian prince, fled his homeland as a youth along with other Persian invasion refugees. Educated as a Christian in Caesarea, he returned to his homeland in 287 to preach the gospel following the restoration of the Armenian monarchy under Tiridates III. Tiridates, however, was an ardent devotee of the old gods and had Gregory arrested and condemned into a dungeon, where he remained for almost 13 years while other Christian followers suffered persecution. (Whooley 2004). According to tradition, the king released Gregory from the dungeon in order to heal himself along with his entire household from a painful illness. Upon their recovery, Tiridates converted to Christianity and Gregory was confirmed as the Catholicos of Armenia which resulted in a mass of conversions and baptisms. It is a well-recognized historical fact that the Armenians were the first nation to formally adhere to Christianity. This conversion was followed in the fourth and fifth centuries by a process of institutionalization and Armenization of Christianity in Armenia (Ananyan 2016). As indicated by the writer Agathangelos, shortly after Armenia's conversion to Christianity, St. Gregory had a vision of the Son of God. Appearing as a chivalrous figure of light encompassed by a powerful saintly host, Christ struck the ground with a golden hammer, depicting where the Mother Cathedral of the new Christian country was to be established. The name Etchmiadzin, "where the Only Begotten descended" alludes to this scene. The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin is the pre-prominent focus of power in the overall Armenian Apostolic Church. Located near the capital of Yerevan in the Republic of Armenia, it is composed of:
• The Mother Cathedral of the entire Armenian Church;
• The monastery and monastic brotherhood;
• The residence of the Catholicos of All Armenians;
• Various religious and cultural institutions, such as the Kevorkian Theological Seminary and a museum (Nersessian 2015). The house of prayer dates back to the fourth century, and is figured the most established Christian cathedrals in the world. Although the present sanctuary was raised in the 1600s, remainders of the fourth century alter have been uncovered underneath the present structure.
In its capacity as the residence of the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, Holy Etchmiadzin is known as the "Catholicate of All Armenians." It became the seat of the Catholicate of the entire Armenian nation in the 4th century, following the conversion of King Tiridates III to Christianity by St. Gregory the Illuminator in AD 301. Armenia consists of two Catholicosates, the Catholicosate of Etchmiadzin (the Catholicosate of All Armenians), Etchmiadzin-Armenia, and the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia, Antelias-Lebanon, and this separation is a result of the 10th century invasion by Seljuks. Many Armenians fled their homeland and settled in Cilicia where they re-organized their political, ecclesiastical and cultural life. The Catholicosate, the headquarters of the Church also took refuge in Cilicia. The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia was destroyed in 1375 when it became a battleground for Seljuks, Mamluks and other invaders. At that time, Armenia was experience a peaceful existence, so faced with the deteriorating situation in Cilicia and the growing cultural and religious awakening in Armenia the clergy of Armenia were influenced to elect a Catholicos in Etchmiadzin. Although latter of the Catholicosates was the original seat of the Catholicosate, it ceased to function as Catholicossal See after 485. In 1441, Kirakos Virapetsi was elected in Etchmiadzin as the new Catholicos. At the same time, Krikor Moussapegiants (1439-1446) was the Catholicos in Cilicia. Therefore, since 1441, two Catholicosates have existed in the Armenian Church with equal rights and privileges, and with their respective jurisdictions (Kochakian 1994). Throughout much of its history, the Armenian Orthodox Church has been vital to the survival of the Armenian nation.
The church has preserved the national awareness of Armenian during the many centuries in which an Armenian state ceased to exist. The Armenian Church played a significant role in the succession of Muslim empires in which its faithful were located. The leaders of the Armenian were politically responsible for their communities since some of the empires were divided according to religious affiliation. During the twentieth century, the Armenian Church endured two devastating events: the genocide in Turkey, in which 1.5 million died, and the Sovietization of eastern Armenia, which ushered in seven decades of official atheism. Essentially destroyed by the Genocide, only remnants of the church in Turkey remain (Whooley
2004). There are two patriarchates in the Armenian Church, one in Jerusalem and the other in Istanbul, Turkey. Archbishop Torkom Manoogian is the Patriarch of Jerusalem and Archbishop Mesrob II Mutafyan is in Istanbul, Turkey. Armenian presence in Jerusalem dates back to early Christian times. From as early as the fourth century, records indicate the presence of Armenian monks in the Holy Land. Over the course of many centuries, Armenian monks and pilgrims assembled several monasteries, with upwards of seventy institutions mentioned by a seventh century Armenian writer. Armenian mosaics depicting Armenian inscriptions from the fifth and sixth centuries indicate a very early Armenian presence in the city (Nersessian 2015). Initially, the city of Jerusalem had one diocesan and sequentially first in the line of religious administrators was St.
James, the Brother of the Lord. Armenian bishops of Greater Armenia visited the Holy Land and some may have lived there for extended periods of time. These pilgrim bishops, priests and laymen likely endured persecutions under Byzantine rule as a result of the schism in the church after the Council of Chalcedon in 451, since the bishops of Jerusalem adhered to the confidence of the Byzantine Empire, though the Armenians stayed consistent with the principles of the early church. In 637, when the Arabs seized Jerusalem, the Armenians took the opportunity to set up their own bishop. They elected Abraham, a cleric, to head the supporters of the Armenian confidence. It became traditional for the Armenian patriarchs to consider this Abraham as the first of the 91 succeeding bishops. The original title of the Armenian patriarchs of Jerusalem was Bishop/Archbishop of Jerusalem. In the later Middle Ages, the archbishops of Jerusalem assumed the title of patriarch and received recognition as such from the Mamluk rulers of Egypt, who were at that time in possession of the Holy Land (Badr
2011). Both the Armenian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches recognize the doctrinal and canonical validity of the first three Councils of the Christian Church: Nicea (325), Constantinople (381), and Ephesus (431), but deny Chalcedon (451), the fourth Ecumenical Council, because it failed to guarantee the unity of the church. Chalcedon ruled that Jesus Christ is "in two natures" in opposition to the doctrine of Monophysitism. The council also issued canons that mainly dealt with the organization of the Church. The disagreement of the council led to the separation of the Chalcedonian Orthodox (the "Eastern Orthodox Church") and the Non-Chalcedonians (the "Oriental Orthodox Church") (Nersessian 2015) . Byzantine efforts to reunite the Church failed. In 482, Emperor Zenon issued his Edict (also known as the Henoticon) which was neutral on Chalcedon but supported the patriarch of Constantinople, Acacius. Both accounts offended the pope which resulted in the Acacian Schism (484–519). Although the Edict was rejected by extremists (Nestorians and Eutychians), it was accepted by most moderates. Zeno's subsequent actions favored anti-Chalcedonianism beliefs. For example, appointing patriarchs like Peter the Fuller in Antioch who was sympathetic to monophysitism (Ananyan 2016). Events of the fifth century were essential to the creating of a distinctively Armenian Christian culture and identity. The foremost of these was the invention of the Armenian alphabet by the monk Mesrob Mashdots and his compatriots. The Armenian alphabet was created with influences from Greek (as reflected in the alphabetical order and the left-to-right direction of writing). The alphabet's original 36 letters were well suited for the Old Armenian language. Two additional letters, "o" and "fe", were added later during the late Middle Ages. The Old Armenian language was the only written form of the language from the 5th to the 19th century. The invention of the alphabet allowed for the translations of scripture, commentaries, liturgy, theology, and histories. Additionally, the fifth century witnessed the first creation of original Armenian literature. An example is Yeznik Koghbatsi’s doctrinal work, Refutation of the Sects. The Battle of Avarayr in 451 against Persia, although a defeat for the Armenians under Vartan Mamigonian, has been remembered as critical for winning the Armenians the right to practice their Christian belief (Badr 2011). As indicated by the earliest known writings in the Armenian language, Armenians considered the principal expression and proclamation of their Christian faith to be the Badarak; the service centered on communion of Christ’s Body and Blood. Faustus and Agathangelos, 5th-century Armenian historians, documented Armenians celebrating the Eucharist in monasteries and other settings and used quotes from prayers that are still in circulation today. The prayer remnants and scenes from the liturgy provide a link between current Christians and the earliest Armenian Christians. In all of the ancient Churches, the Divine Liturgy consists of two large blocks: The Synaxis and the Eucharist. In the Armenian Church, these two halves are preceded by a preparatory introduction and end with a brief conclusion, both late additions to the ancient two-part structure (Kochakian 1994).The earliest known examples of Armenian liturgical are date back to the 5th century and are credited to St. Mesrob, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet, and Movses Khorenatsi, a historian. The roots of Armenian Church music lay in Jewish biblical tunes, Zoroastrian ritual melodies and pre-Christian folk songs. Armenian sacred music is the most ancient among Christian musical cultures. Sharagan, a canonical hymn, is the most popular genre of Armenian sacred music. Eventually, these hymns were compiled in the sharagnots (or "book of sharagan"), and canonized by assigning specific sharagans to particular days in the church calendar (Ananyan 2016). Traditional Armenian music is not only distinctive in its melodies, but also in structure, which differs from the Western forms. Armenian Church music is monophonic, consisting of a single melodic line without support of harmony. Traditionally chanted by men alone, without the accompaniment of musical instruments, the hymns are built on melody-modes, which is different from the major and minor scales of the Western music. Instead of the 'square'/4+4/metric division of the Western music, the rhythm of the Armenian chant is irregular, asymmetrical, and organized in complex cyclical structures. Most ancient chants were written in prose and the use of versified hymns developed later in church history. Gradually a correlation of notes to syllables changed from syllabic (1:1) to pneumatic (1-2-3-4: 1) and later to melismatic (extended melodic patterns to a single syllable). Unlike Western church music which exploits a variety of large-scale forms, Armenian sacred music is much more laconic and compact in dimension (Shahnazaryan 2015). In 2001, the Armenian Church celebrated its 1700th anniversary of the proclamation as the first Christian nation . The 1995 election of Karekin I as Catholicos of all Armenians marked the first time since the Cilician period that Armenians were able to choose a catholicos in an independent Armenia. During his short pontificate, Karekin I achieved several accomplishments, but his untimely death in 1999 left much of his vision for the Church unrealized. The election of Karekin II as Catholicos of All Armenians in 1999 offers the promise that a young and greatly respected leader will be able to fulfill that vision. The mission of the Armenian Church today is to integrate all aspects of Armenian life with the Gospel remains fundamentally the same as that of St. Gregory the Illuminator at the Armenian Church’s beginning (Papazian 2016).