By Michael J.L. La Civita with photographs by Armineh
Johannes
The landlocked republic of Armenia — squeezed between
Russia and Iran in the Caucasus — bridges Asia and Europe. But more than half
of the world’s six million Armenians now live outside the country: For almost
two millennia this transcontinental people, historically identified as
European, have grafted to other cultures farther afield. Diaspora communities
have flowered in the Americas, Anatolia, Central Asia, Europe (particularly
France, Russia and Ukraine), India, the Middle East and Oceania — proving that
migration does not always bring about the end of a culture and identity.
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Numerous factors have contributed to this unique Armenian
narrative. Perhaps the greatest has been the seamless integration of culture,
faith and language forged by the preeminent Armenian institution, the Armenian
Church.
Though accurate statistics are not available, the vast
majority of Armenians worldwide — about 95 percent — belongs to the ancient
Armenian Apostolic Church. Despite its diminutive size, the Armenian Catholic
Church, which shares the rites and traditions of the Apostolic Church while
affirming full communion with the Church of Rome, has contributed considerably
to the vitality of the Armenian nation, invigorating monasticism, scholarship
and social service.
First developments. Armenia’s Christian roots run deep.
According to tradition, the apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus first evangelized
the kingdom, then a buffer state between the rival empires of the Persians and
Romans. After years of persecution, Christianity took hold when Gregory, the
“illuminator of the Armenians,” baptized King Tiridates III in 301. The king
proclaimed Christianity the official religion of the state, making Armenia the
first Christian nation.
Looking both east and west, the Armenian Church digested
the philosophical positions and theological vocabularies of the great learning
centers of the ancient world — Alexandria and Antioch, Athens and Rome,
Constantinople and Seleucia, Edessa and Nisibis — and began the development of
an alphabet for the Armenian vernacular even as an independent Armenian nation
expired.
Though conscious of the great Christological
controversies that rocked the universal church, the Armenians could not
participate in these debates, especially the Council of Chalcedon (451).
Appeasing Persian oppression, the leaders of the Armenian Church declared their
civil allegiance to the Persian emperor, but stressed their spiritual
submission to Christ.
A century after Chalcedon, the Armenian Church denounced
the decrees of the council, reaffirmed its adherence to a more conservative
understanding of Jesus’ nature and asserted its independence from the churches
of Constantinople and Rome. In line with Coptic, Ethiopic and Syriac Orthodox
Christians, who also rejected the decrees of Chalcedon, Armenians emphasized
the apostolic roots of their particular church.
Though the Armenian Apostolic Church underscored its
independence, self-reliance did not sink it into isolation. Armenian scribes
and soldiers served Byzantine as well as Persian and Turkish Muslim courts.
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