Orthodoxy in Armenia

Early Christianity began to penetrate into the territory of modern Armenia according to ancient traditions already in the 1st century BC. e. It is believed that the Apostle Thaddeus, after visiting Edessa, went to Armenia with a sermon . He managed to convert many local residents to Christianity, including Princess Sandukht . In 301, King Trdat III proclaimed Christianity the state religion, thus Armenia became the first Christian state in the world.

The IV Ecumenical (Chalcedonian) Council (451) was held without the participation of Armenian bishops, and its decisions were rejected by Armenian clergy. At II Dvina Cathedral (554), the definitions of the Council of Chalcedon and the confession of St. Leo the Great were rejected and condemned, which marked the secession of the Armenian church from Orthodoxy. However, subsequently, a significant part of the Armenians in the territory of Armenia, which was part of Byzantium, remained in communion with the Ecumenical Church after passing to the Patriarchate of Constantinople ^[4] . After the invasion of the Byzantine possessions of the Seljuk Turks (from the second half of the 11th century), Orthodox Armenians were forced to transfer to the jurisdiction of the Georgian Patriarchate .

The appearance of the first Russian Orthodox parishes dates back to the beginning of the 19th century : churches were founded in stanitsas Cossacks resettled to the border and the military in the places of deployment of garrisons. After the territory of modern Armenia became part of Russia as a result of the Russian-Persian war (1826-1828), the Orthodox parishes were under the jurisdiction of the Georgian Exarchate , established in 1811 (in the jurisdiction of the Russian Holy Synod ). Most of the Russian settlers in the region, according to the classification of that time, were “ sectarians ”: in the 1880s, there were 23 Russian villages (over 11 thousand people), of which only 6 were Orthodox (2.7 thousand people), and the rest: Molokans , Subbotniks , Baptists . In the last quarter of the 19th century, the Society for the Restoration of Orthodox Christianity in the Caucasus, which was engaged in missionary activities among the Nestorian Assyrians and opposed the Molokan, Dukhobor and Sabbath sects, functioned in the Russian Erivan province and the Kars region ( Kars left Russia in 1878 under the San Stefan Treaty ). On December 13, 1912, the Erivan Vicariate of the Kartalino-Kakheti Diocese of the Georgian Exarchate was established, which lasted until July 1917.

The Local Council of the Georgian Orthodox Church, held on September 18-19, 1995, ruled that the Orthodox Christians living in Armenia are under the jurisdiction of the Georgian Orthodox Church ^[5] .

In September 2001, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II visited Armenia, who was present at the consecration of the newly-built Armenian Cathedral in Yerevan. ^[6] .

The main church of the Russian Orthodox Church in Armenia is the Intercession Church located in Yerevan .

On November 19, 1943, by the definition of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Orthodox parishes in the territory of Armenia were transferred to the Georgian Orthodox Church ^[7] .

From 1991, Russian Orthodox parishes became subordinate to the Maykop and Armavir dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church, from 1991 to 2016 they were part of the Ekaterinodar and Kuban dioceses .

On December 27, 2016, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church formed the Patriarchal Deanery in the parishes located in the Republic of Armenia ^[8] .

In addition to the Christological question of the union of two natures in Christ (Divine and human), the rest of the teaching of the Armenian Church is fully consistent with the creed of the Orthodox Church ^[9]

In 451, the IV Ecumenical Council was convened by the emperor Marcian in Chalcedon on the occasion of Monophysitism - the heresy of Eutyches . While discussions were taking place in Chalcedon , the Armenians rejected the ultimatum of Yezdiger II on the transition to Zoroastrianism and waged a mortal battle for the right to believe in Christ ( See Avraira Battle ). Being ruined due to a bloody war with Persia, the AAC was not able to follow the Christological disputes unfolding in Byzantium and express its position ^[10] . Therefore, after the end of the war, the AAC , among other churches not present at the IV Ecumenical Council, did not take its decision as the Ecumenical, considering it local, which means that its definitions were considered not binding on the Ecumenical Church ^{[10] [11]} Despite the fact that the AAC condemned Eutychius , the teacher of the Monophysite heresy, because of which the Cathedral in Chalcedon was directly convened, the Orthodox churches accused the Armenian Church of the heresy of Monophysitism. In turn , the AAC Patriarchs, calling the Byzantine Orthodox Church Diophysite among other representatives of the ancient Eastern Orthodox churches, were suspected that Nestorianism was secretly hidden in the creed of the Chalcedon Cathedral.

In the middle of the 6th century, Byzantium captured part of Armenia , at which Emperor Justinian I began to persecute opponents of the Council of Chalcedon , which led to the alienation between the Greeks and Armenians, as a result, the Dvina II Council, convened in 554 to discuss what was subject to Byzantium on the Armenian lands, openly condemned Chalcedon Cathedral ^[2]

Thus, starting from the Middle Ages and up to the last years, the Armenian Church called the Orthodox Diophysite , and the Armenian Church the Monophysite ^[9] . However, Armenian theologians constantly denied attempts to attribute to the dogmatic and cult features of the Armenian Church the monophysitical character of the heretical deviation ^[10] . The deep-rooted opinion of Greek and Latin authors about the Ancient Eastern churches as “monophysical” is not correct today and not true in essence ^{[11] [12]}

In 1964, a dialogue between the theologians of the Orthodox and Ancient Eastern churches was started in Denmark in the city of Aargus , as a result of which the parties came to the following conclusions:

• The Orthodox Churches are not Nestorian, as the Orthodox Churches reject Nestorianism:
• The ancient Eastern Churches, including the Armenian one, are not monophysitical, for monophysitism is a Eutychian heresy that is anathematized by the Armenian Church ^[9] .

• Yerevan Vicariate // Orthodox Encyclopedia . - M .: Church Scientific Center "Orthodox Encyclopedia" , 2008. - T. XVIII. - S.N. T.-M., L. Masiel Sanchez. - 752 s. - 39,000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-89572-032-5 .
• Orthodoxy in Armenia