Church of Caucasian Albania
[1][2] In 705, it fell under the religious jurisdiction of the Armenian Apostolic Church as the Catholicosate of Aghvank[3] centered in Caucasian Albania, a region spanning present-day northern Azerbaijan and southern Dagestan.
[4] In medieval times, the Gandzasar monastery served as the See of the Catholicosate of Aghvank of the Armenian Apostolic Church,[1][5] which continued to exist until 1828 (or 1836[6]) when it was formally abolished by the Russian authorities,[5] following the forced cession of the last territories in the Caucasus maintained under Iranian Qajar rule per the Treaty of Turkmenchay and the Russo-Persian War (1826–1828).
According to local folk lore, Christianity entered Caucasian Albania in the 1st century AD St. Elishe, a disciple of Thaddeus of Edessa, arrived to a place called Gis (Գիս), where he built a church and recited a liturgy, today commonly believed[by whom?]
During his stay in the land of the Maskout in northeast Caucasian Albania, St. Gregoris was attacked by an angry mob of idol worshipers, tied to a horse and dismembered.
His remains were buried near the Amaras Monastery (presently in the Martuni Province of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) built by his grandfather in the canton of Haband in Artsakh.
[18] Although while in Ctesiphon the nobles relented, were showered with gifts,[19] and sent back to their lands accompanied by Zoroastrian priests to establish the religion in their respective nations,[20] upon returning home these nobles were spurred by popular sentiment to hold more firmly to their Christian faith and rebel against King Yazdegerd II under the leadership of Armenian General Vardan Mamikonyan.
[22][23] Christianity reached its golden age in the late 5th century under Vachagan the Pious (ruled 487–510), who launched a campaign against idol worship and witchcraft in Caucasian Albania and discouraged Zoroastrianism.
During the council, a twenty-one paragraph codex formalizing and regulating the important aspects of the Church's structure, functions, relationship with the state, and legal status was adopted.
His converts offered him to establish and lead a patriarchate there through a special request sent by Alp Iluetuer to Eliezer, Catholicos of Caucasian Albania.
After the overthrow of Nerses in 705, the Caucasian Albanian elite decided to reestablish the tradition of having their Catholicoi ordained through the Patriarch of Armenia, as was the case before 590.
[37] As of the late 6th century, both Nestorian and Chalcedonian beliefs were popular enough in Caucasian Albania to provoke a letter of concern, dated sometime between the years 568 and 571, from Armenian Catholicos Hovhannes addressed to Bishop Vrtanes and Prince Mihr-Artashir of Syunik province.
[40] Indeed, it is likely that because of such advocacy and possible coercive pressure, dioceses of the Church of Caucasian Albania located in Jerusalem had already accepted Chalcedonian practices and had begun promoting them back home.
According to Kaghankatvatsi, Nerses was the Bishop of Gardman who adhered to Council of Chalcedon, as did the queen-consort of Caucasian Albania, Spram, the wife of Varaz-Tiridates I.
Many members of the ruling class and clergy accepted his ideas, whereas those that remained loyal to the original teachings of the Church (including Israel, Bishop of Mets Kolmanķ), became subject to repression.
Elias, Catholicos of Armenia, followed up by writing a letter to Caliph Abd al-Malik notifying him of the political threat that Chalcedonianism was posing to the region.
[43][44] In light of the fact that leaders of the modern Caucasian Albanian Church are considering sending potential clergy to study in Russia,[45] its future may be with dyophysite Eastern Orthodox Christianity rather than Oriental Orthodoxy.
[47] In his letter to Persian Christians in 506, Babgen I, Catholicos of Armenia, stated that all three churches of the Caucasus were ideologically united despite each having its own language.
Among the factors that might have contributed to that are constant raids of the Khazars and the "lawless" who burned churches and with them much of Caucasian Albanian religious literature.
In the last chapter of book two, Movses Kaghankatvatsi lists monasteries that were established by Caucasian Albanians[clarification needed] in Jerusalem.
[57] According to the 6th-century archbishop and historian St. Sophronius of Cyprus, in 71, St. Bartholomew the Apostle was preaching Christianity in the city of Albana or Albanopolis,[59] associated with present-day Baku[60] or Derbent,[61] both located by the Caspian Sea.
St. Bartholomew managed to convert even members of the local royal family who had worshipped the idol Astaroth, but was later martyred by being flayed alive and crucified head down on orders from the pagan king Astyages.
