[6][7] According to Georgian Orthodox Church tradition, the first preacher of the Gospel in Colchis and Iberia (modern-day Western and Eastern Georgia) was the apostle Andrew, the First-called.

[8] However, modern historiography considers this account mythical, and the fruit of a late tradition, derived from 9th-century Byzantine legends about the travels of St. Andrew in eastern Christendom.

Other apostles claimed by the church to have preached in Georgia include Simon the Canaanite (better known in the West as Simon the Zealot), said to have been buried near Sokhumi, in the village of Anakopia, and Saint Matthias, said to have preached in the southwest of Georgia, and to have been buried in Gonio, a village not far from Batumi.

She preached in the Caucasian Kingdom of Iberia (also known as Kartli) in the first half of the 4th century, and her intercession eventually led to the conversion of King Mirian III, his wife Queen (later Saint) Nana and their family.

[11] However, they now started to gradually decline, even despite Zoroastrianism becoming a second established religion of Iberia after the Peace of Acilisene in 378, and more precisely by the mid-fifth century.

Conversion of the people of Iberia proceeded quickly in the plains, but pagan beliefs long subsisted in mountain regions.

"This situation of continuing canonical dependence was altered after the 11th century, when the catholicos of Mtskheta spread out his jurisdiction over western Georgia.

[16] The Encyclopedia Britannica states that the autocephaly of the Church "was probably granted by the Eastern Roman emperor Zeno (474–491) with the consent of the patriarch of Antioch, Peter the Fuller.

[23] In the western half of Georgia, ancient Colchis, which had remained under stronger Roman influence, local churches were under jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and were culturally and linguistically Hellenistic.

Such movements led to the progressive merge of western and eastern churches under the latter, as Byzantine power decreased and doctrinal differences disappeared.

During the first centuries of Christianity, the South Caucasus was culturally much more united than in later periods, and constant interactions between what would become the Georgian and Armenian churches shaped both of them.

At first, the Catholicoi of Iberia chose the anti-Chalcedonian camp together with the Armenians, even though diversity of opinions was always present among the clergy, and tolerated by the hierarchy.

[31] The king of Iberia, Vakhtang Gorgasali, who sought an alliance with Byzantium against the Persians, accepted the Henotikon, a compromise put forward by the Byzantine Emperor Zeno in 482.

[34] Between the 11th and the early 13th centuries, Georgia experienced a political, economical and cultural golden age, as the Bagrationi dynasty managed to unite western and eastern halves of the country into a single kingdom.

To accomplish that goal, kings relied much on the prestige of the Church, and enrolled its political support by giving it many economical advantages, immunity from taxes and large appanages.

In 1103, he summoned the council of Ruisi-Urbnisi, which condemned Armenian Miaphysitism in stronger terms than ever before, and gave unprecedented power, second only to the Patriarch, to his friend and advisor George of Chqondidi.

For the following centuries, the Church would remain a crucial feudal institution, whose economical and political power would always be at least equal to that of the main noble families.

[36] They were soon joined by local monks, which led to the creation of significant works of hagiographic literature in Georgian, such as the "Life of Saint Nino" and the "Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik".

[37] The most prominent figure in the history of Georgian monasticism is judged to be Gregory of Khandzta (759–861), who founded numerous communities in Tao-Klarjeti.

Philosophy flourished between the 11th and 13th century, especially at the Academy of Gelati Monastery, where Ioane Petritsi attempted a synthesis of Christian, aristotelician and neoplatonic thought.

[39] In the next centuries, Georgia, weakened and fragmented, fell under the domination of the Ottoman and successive Persian (Safavid, Afsharid, and Qajar) Empires: mostly, the Ottomans ruled the West of the country, the Persians the East, while generally allowing autonomous Georgian kingdoms to subsist under their control.

New martyrs were canonized by the church after each invasion, most notably Queen Ketevan of Kakheti, who was tortured to death in 1624 for refusing to renounce Christianity on the orders of Abbas I of Persia (Shah-Abbas).

Many of them, to gain Persian favor, and win the throne over their brothers, converted to Islam, or feigned to, such as David XI of Kartli (Daud Khan).

Other noblemen, such as Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani, left the weakened local church for Catholicism, as missionaries were bringing the printing press and western culture to Georgia around 1700.

From 1817, the metropolitan bishop, or exarch, in charge of the church was an ethnic Russian, with no knowledge of the Georgian language and culture.

The 19th century was a time of decline and disaffection, as the church buildings often fell into disrepair, and the trust of people in the institution was diminished by its Russification and corruption.

First signs of revival can be seen from the 1970s, when Eduard Shevardnadze, then secretary of the Georgian SSR's Communist Party, adopted a more tolerant stance, and new Patriarch Ilia II could from 1977 renovate derelict churches, and even build new ones.

At the same time, nationalist dissidents such as Zviad Gamsakhurdia emphasized the Christian nature of their struggle against Communist power, and developed relations with Church officials that would come to fruition after 1989.

The special role of the church in the history of the country is recognized in the Article 9 of the Constitution of Georgia;[47] its status and relations with the state were further defined in the Constitutional Agreement, or Concordat, signed by President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze and Patriarch Ilia II on 14 October 2002.

Opposition against Protestant missionary activity has remained strong in contemporary Georgia, and even led to episodes of violence.