Flag of the Georgian Orthodox Church used sinceMedieval times
TheApostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia (Georgian:საქართველოს სამოციქულო ავტოკეფალური მართლმადიდებელი ეკლესია,romanized:sakartvelos samotsikulo avt'ok'epaluri martlmadidebeli ek'lesia), commonly known as theGeorgian Orthodox Church or theOrthodox Church of Georgia, is anautocephalousEastern Orthodox church infull communion with the other churches ofEastern Orthodoxy. It isGeorgia's dominant religious institution, and a majority ofGeorgian people are members. The Orthodox Church of Georgia is one of the oldest churches in the world. It assertsapostolic foundation, and that its historical roots can be traced to the early and lateChristianization of Iberia and Colchis byAndrew the Apostle in the 1st century AD and bySaint Nino in the 4th century AD, respectively. As in similar autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Christian churches, the church's highest governing body is theholy synod of bishops. The church is headed by thePatriarch of All Georgia,Ilia II, who was elected in 1977.
The Georgian Orthodox Church is the most trusted institution in Georgia. According to a 2013 survey, 95% respondents had a favorable opinion of its work.[6] It is highly influential in the public sphere and is considered Georgia's most influential institution.[7][8]
According to Georgian Orthodox Church tradition, the first preacher of theGospel inColchis andIberia (modern-day Western and EasternGeorgia) was the apostleAndrew,the First-called. According to the official church account, Andrew preached across Georgia, carrying with him anacheiropoieta of the Virgin Mary (an icon believed to be created "not by human hand"), and founded Christian communities believed to be the direct ancestors of the church.[9] 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.[10] Similar traditions regarding Saint Andrew exist inUkraine,Cyprus andRomania. Other apostles claimed by the church to have preached in Georgia includeSimon the Canaanite (better known in the West as Simon the Zealot), said to have been buried nearSokhumi, in the village ofAnakopia, andSaint Matthias, said to have preached in the southwest of Georgia, and to have been buried inGonio, a village not far fromBatumi. The church also claims the presence in Georgia of the ApostlesBartholomew andThaddeus, coming north fromArmenia.[11]
The propagation of Christianity in present-day Georgia before the 4th century is still poorly known. The first documented event in this process is the preaching ofSaint Nino and its consequences, although exact dates are still debated. Saint Nino, honored asEqual to the Apostles, was according to tradition the daughter of a Roman general fromCappadocia. She preached in the CaucasianKingdom of Iberia (also known asKartli) in the first half of the 4th century, and her intercession eventually led to the conversion of KingMirian III, his wife Queen (later Saint)Nana and their family.Cyril Toumanoff dates the conversion of Mirian to 334, his official baptism and subsequent adoption of Christianity as the official religion of Iberia to 337.[12] From the first centuries C.E., the cult ofMithras,pagan beliefs, andZoroastrianism were commonly practiced in Georgia.[13] However, they now started to gradually decline, even despite Zoroastrianism becoming a second established religion of Iberia after thePeace of Acilisene in 378, and more precisely by the mid-fifth century.[14]
The royal baptism and organization of the church were accomplished by priests sent fromConstantinople byConstantine the Great. Conversion of the people of Iberia proceeded quickly in the plains, but pagan beliefs long subsisted in mountain regions. The westernKingdom of Lazica was politically and culturally distinct from Iberia at that time, and culturally more integrated into theRoman Empire; some of its cities already had bishops by the time of theFirst Council of Nicea (325).
The conversion of Iberia marked only the beginnings of the formation of the Georgian Orthodox Church. In the following centuries, different processes took place that shaped the church, and gave it, by the beginning of the 11th century, the main characteristics that it has retained until now. Those processes concern the institutional status of the church inside Eastern Christianity, its evolution into a national church with authority over all of Georgia, and the dogmatic evolution of the church.
In the 4th and 5th centuries, the Church ofIberia was strictly subordinated to theApostolic See ofAntioch: all of her bishops wereconsecrated inAntioch before being sent to Iberia.[15] Around 480, "[i]n an attempt to secureK'art'velian support and to acknowledge local support of the empire, theByzantine government recognized – and perhaps itself instigated – the change in status of the K'art'velianchief prelate fromarchbishop tocatholicos".[16]
"According to the Antiochenecanonist and patriarchTheodore Balsamon (1140–95), 'When the Lord Peter was the Holy Patriarch of the great and godly city of Antioch, theSynod decided to make the Church of Iberia autocephalous.' The patriarch he refers to must bePeter the Fuller (ca. 488). Even so, the church in Iberia did not gain complete independence from themother church ofAntioch." The church remained subordinate to the Antiochian Church; the Catholicos could appointlocal bishops, but until the 740s, his own election had to be confirmed by thesynod of the Church of Antioch, and even after the 8th century, annual payments were made to the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch. "This situation of continuing canonical dependence was altered after the 11th century, when the catholicos ofMtskheta spread out his jurisdiction overwestern Georgia. Since then, the head of the Autocephalous Church of Georgia has been the catholicos-patriarch of all Georgia, and the church has been fully independent in its domestic and foreign affairs, with the exception of the period between 1811 and 1917.Melchisedek I (1010–33) was the first catholicos-patriarch of all Georgia."[17]
However, other sources state that the autocephaly was given to the Church at other dates.Ronald Roberson gives 467 for the year the Church became autocephalous.[18] TheEncyclopedia Britannica states that the autocephaly of the Church "was probably granted by the Eastern Roman emperorZeno (474–491) with the consent of the patriarch of Antioch, Peter the Fuller."[19] Other sources indicate 484 for the year the Church became autocephalous.[20][21] Rapp states that "Fully-fledged autocephaly [of the Georgian Church] would not be achieved [...] until theArab conquest or later."[16]
Territorial expansion and birth of a national church
At the beginnings of the church history, what is now Georgia was not unified yet politically, and would not be until the beginnings of the 11th century. The western half of the country, mostly constituted of the kingdom ofLazica, or Egrisi, was under much stronger influence of theByzantine Empire than eastern Iberia, where Byzantine, Armenian and Persian influences coexisted. Such division was reflected in major differences in the development of Christianity.
In the east, from the conversion of Mirian, the church developed under the protection of the kings of Iberia, or Kartli. A major factor in the development of the church in Iberia was the introduction of theGeorgian alphabet. The impulse for a script adapted to the language of the local people stemmed from efforts to evangelize the population. A similar dynamic led to the creation of theArmenian alphabet. The exact origin of the script is still debated, but must have happened in the second half of the 4th century or the early 5th century.[22][23] The introduction of monasticism, and its tremendous development, in Iberia in the 6th century encouraged both foreign cultural inputs and the development of local written works. From that moment, together with translations of the Bible, ecclesiastical literature inGeorgian was produced in Iberia, most prominently biographies of saints, such as the "Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik" and the "Martyrdom ofSaint Abo". Many of the saints from the first centuries of the church were not ethnic Georgians (Shushanik was an Armenian princess, Abo an Arab), showing that the church had not yet acquired a strictly national character.[24]
This changed only during the 7th century, after the wide political and cultural changes brought about by theMuslim conquests. This new menace for local culture, religion, and autonomy, and the difficulties to maintain constant contact with other Christian communities, led to a drastic cultural change inside the church, which became for the first time ethnically focused: it evolved into a "Kartvelian Church".[25] The bishops and Catholicos were now all ethnic Georgians, as were the saints whose "Lives" were written from that period.[25]
In the western half of Georgia, ancientColchis, which had remained under stronger Roman influence, local churches were under jurisdiction of thePatriarchate of Constantinople, and were culturally and linguistically Hellenistic. Bishops from the port cities took part in ecumenical councils, from theCouncil of Nicea (325) together with those from the Byzantine territories. From the 6th century, those churches, whose language remainedGreek, were headed by ametropolitan inPhasis.[26][27] The integration of the Black sea coastal regions into what came to be known as Georgia was a long process. A first step came with the Arab invasions of the 7th and 8th centuries, which mostly affected Iberia. Refugees, among them noblemen such asArchil of Kakheti, took shelter in the West, either inAbkhazia orTao-Klarjeti, and brought there their culture. Such movements led to the progressive merge of western and eastern churches under the latter, as Byzantine power decreased and doctrinal differences disappeared.[28] The western Church broke away from Constantinople and recognized the authority of the Catholicos of Mtskheta by the end of the 9th century.[29] Political unification under theBagrationi dynasty consolidated this evolution by the end of the 10th century: in a single, unifiedKingdom of Georgia, there would be a unified Georgian Church.
Relations with the Armenian and Byzantine churches
During the first centuries of Christianity, theSouth 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.[30][31] TheArmenian Church was founded two decades earlier, and, during the 4th century, was larger and more influential than the Church in Iberia. As such, it exerted strong influence in the early doctrine of the church.[32] The influence of theChurch of Jerusalem was also strong, especially in liturgy. The Georgian-Armenian ecclesial relationship would be tested after theCouncil of Chalcedon (451), whosechristologicalconclusions were rejected by the Armenian Church and important portions of theChurch of Antioch, as well as theCoptic Church based in Alexandria.
At first, theCatholicoi 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.[33] The king of Iberia,Vakhtang Gorgasali, who sought an alliance with Byzantium against the Persians, accepted theHenotikon, a compromise put forward by the Byzantine Emperor Zeno in 482.[34] Such conciliation was attempted again at theFirst Council of Dvin in 506, and the status quo was preserved during the 6th century.
Around 600 however, tensions flared between the Armenian Apostolic Church and the church in Iberia, as the Armenian Church attempted to assert prominence in the Caucasus, in both hierarchical and doctrinal matters, whereas the Catholicos of Mtskheta,Kirion I, leaned towards the Byzantine, Chalcedonian side of the debate, as Iberia was once again seeking imperial support against theSassanid Empire, who had abolished the Kingdom in 580. TheThird Council of Dvin, in 607, sanctioned the rupture with the Armenian Church.[34][35]
The following centuries confirmed the Byzantine orientation of the Georgian Church, and its estrangement from the Armenian Church. Confessional disputes remained impossible to overcome, and were a staple of theological literature in both areas. The integration of western and eastern Georgian churches from the 9th century also sealed theOrthodox nature of the Georgian Church, as Byzantine liturgy and cultural forms spread to the detriment of traditional Oriental practice.[36]
Between the 11th and the early 13th centuries, Georgia experienced apolitical, economical and cultural golden age, as theBagrationi dynasty managed to unite western and eastern halves of the country into a singlekingdom. 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.[37] At the same time, the kings, most notablyDavid the Builder (1089–1125), used state power to interfere in church affairs. In 1103, he summoned thecouncil of Ruisi-Urbnisi, which condemned ArmenianMiaphysitism in stronger terms than ever before, and gave unprecedented power, second only to the Patriarch, to his friend and advisorGeorge 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.
Cultural influence of Christianity in Medieval Georgia
During the Middle Ages, Christianity was the central element of Georgian culture. The development of a written Georgian culture was made possible by the creation of the Georgian alphabet for evangelization purposes.Monasticism played a major role in the following cultural transformation. It started in Georgia in the 6th century, when Assyrian ascetic monks, known as theThirteen Assyrian Fathers, settled in Iberia and founded a series of monasteries, most notablyDavid Gareja.[38] 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". The golden age of Georgian monasticism lasted from the 9th to the 11th century. During that period, Georgian monasteries were founded outside the country, most notably onMount Sinai,Mount Athos (theIviron monastery, where theTheotokos Iverskaya icon is still located), and inPalestine.[39] The most prominent figure in the history of Georgian monasticism is judged to beGregory of Khandzta (759–861), who founded numerous communities inTao-Klarjeti.
Specific forms of art were developed in Georgia for religious purposes. Among them,calligraphy,polyphonic church singing,cloisonné enamel icons, such as theKhakhuli triptych, and the "Georgian cross-dome style" of architecture, which characterizes most medieval Georgian churches. The most celebrated examples of Georgian religious architecture of the time include theGelati Monastery andBagrati Cathedral inKutaisi, theIkalto Monastery complex and Academy, and theSvetitskhoveli Cathedral inMtskheta.
TheMongol invasions in the 13th century andTamerlane in the 14–15th century greatly disrupted Georgian Christianity. The political unity of the country was broken several times, and definitely in the 1460s. Churches and monasteries were targeted by the invaders, as they hosted many treasures. As a result of those devastations, many fell into disrepair or were abandoned.[41] In the western half of Georgia, theCatholicate of Abkhazia was established following the Mongol rule. It seceded from the Mtskheta see as the Kingdom disintegrated, and the western Catholicos thereafter assumed the title of Patriarch. This rival seat, based first inPitsunda, then at theGelati Monastery nearKutaisi, subsisted until 1795.[42] During those times, contacts with theCatholic Church increased, first as a way to liberate itself from meddling by the Byzantine Church, then to find stronger allies against invaders. Between 1328 and the early 16th century, a Catholic bishop had his see in Tbilisi to foster those contacts. However, formal reunion with Rome never happened, and the church remained faithful to Eastern Orthodoxy.[41]
In the next centuries, Georgia,weakened and fragmented, fell under the domination of theOttoman and successivePersian (Safavid,Afsharid, andQajar) 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. With thefall of Constantinople in 1453, Georgian Christians had lost their traditional recourse against Muslims, and were left to themselves.
New martyrs were canonized by the church after each invasion, most notably QueenKetevan of Kakheti, who was tortured to death in 1624 for refusing to renounce Christianity on the orders ofAbbas I of Persia (Shah-Abbas). Not all members of the royal families of Kartli and Kakheti were so faithful to the church, though. Many of them, to gain Persian favor, and win the throne over their brothers, converted to Islam, or feigned to, such asDavid XI of Kartli (Daud Khan). Other noblemen, such asSulkhan-Saba Orbeliani, left the weakened local church for Catholicism, as missionaries were bringing the printing press and western culture to Georgia around 1700. Only the emergence of a strong Orthodox power, theRussian Empire, could reinforce during the 18th century the status and prestige of the Church among the elites, and the shared Orthodoxy was a potent factor in the calls for Russian intervention in the Caucasus, to liberate Georgia from Muslim domination.[43]
PatriarchAnton II of Georgia was downgraded to the status of an archbishop by the Russian Imperial authorities.
In 1801, the Kingdom ofKartl-Kakheti (Eastern Georgia) was occupied and annexed by theRussian Empire. On 18 July 1811, the autocephalous status of the Georgian Church was abolished by the Russian authorities, despite strong opposition in Georgia, and the Georgian Church was subjected to the synodical rule of the Russian Orthodox Church. From 1817, the metropolitan bishop, orexarch, in charge of the church was an ethnic Russian, with no knowledge of the Georgian language and culture.[43] The Georgian liturgy was suppressed and replaced withChurch Slavonic, ancient frescoes were whitewashed from the walls of many churches, and publication of religious literature in Georgian heavily censored. Calls for autocephaly became heard again only after the intellectual national revival that started in the 1870s; the local clergy made such calls during the1905 revolution, before being repressed again.[44]
Following the overthrow of the TsarNicholas II in March 1917, Georgia's bishops unilaterally restored the autocephaly of the Georgian Orthodox Church on 25 March 1917. These changes were not accepted by the Russian Orthodox Church. After theRed Army invasion of Georgia in 1921, the Georgian Orthodox Church was subjected to intense harassment.[45] Hundreds of churches were closed by the atheist government and hundreds of monks were killed duringJoseph Stalin's purges. The independence of the Georgian Orthodox Church was finally recognized by the Russian Orthodox Church on 31 October 1943: this move was ordered by Stalin as part of the war-time more tolerant policy towards Christianity in theSoviet Union. Newanti-religious campaigns took place after the war, especially underNikita Khrushchev. Corruption and infiltration by thesecurity organs were also plaguing the church. First signs of revival can be seen from the 1970s, whenEduard Shevardnadze, then secretary of theGeorgian SSR's Communist Party, adopted a more tolerant stance, and new PatriarchIlia II could from 1977 renovate derelict churches, and even build new ones. At the same time, nationalist dissidents such asZviad Gamsakhurdia emphasized the Christian nature of their struggle against Communist power, and developed relations with Church officials that would come to fruition after 1989.[46]
On 25 January 1990, thePatriarch of Constantinople recognized and approved the autocephaly of the Georgian Orthodox Church (which had in practice been exercised or at least claimed since the 5th century) as well as the Patriarchal honour of theCatholicos.[47][48] Georgia's subsequent independence in 1991 saw a major revival in the fortunes of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
The special role of the church in the history of the country is recognized in the Article 9 of theConstitution of Georgia;[49] its status and relations with the state were further defined in theConstitutional Agreement, orConcordat, signed byPresident of GeorgiaEduard Shevardnadze and PatriarchIlia II on 14 October 2002. The Concordat notably recognizes church ownership of all churches and monasteries, and grants it a special consultative role in government, especially in matters of education.[50][51]
Eparchies of the Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church as of 2010
Many churches and monasteries have been rebuilt or renovated since independence, often with help from the state or wealthy individuals. The church has enjoyed good relations with all three Presidents of Georgia since independence was restored. However, tensions subsist within the Church itself regarding its participation in theecumenical movement, which Patriarch Ilia II had endorsed (he served as head of theWorld Council of Churches between 1977 and 1983). Opposition to ecumenism was fueled by fears of massive proselytizing by Protestant denominations in Georgia. In 1997, faced with open dissension from leading monks, Ilia II rescinded church participation in international ecumenical organizations, though he stopped short of denouncing ecumenism as "heresy". Opposition against Protestant missionary activity has remained strong in contemporary Georgia, and even led to episodes of violence.[52] Separatism in Abkhazia has also affected the church: the Eparchy of Sukhumi, regrouping Abkhaz clergy, proclaimed in 2009 its secession from the Georgian Orthodox Church to form a newAbkhazian Orthodox Church; this move remained however unrecognized by any other orthodox authorities, including theRussian Orthodox Church.[53] The relations with the neighboringArmenian Apostolic Church have also been uneasy since independence, notably due to various conflicts about church ownership in both countries.[54] 83.9% of Georgia's population identified themselves as Orthodox in the 2002 census.[55] In 2002, it was reported that there were 35eparchies (dioceses) and about 600 churches within the Georgian Orthodox Church, served by 730 priests. The Georgian Orthodox Church has around 3,600,000 members within Georgia[4][56] (no sources attempt to count members among the Georgian diaspora).
On September 13, 2021 hundreds of files related to the clergy Georgian Orthodox Church became publicly available on the Internet. From those files, it became known that the state security service had an ongoing massive surveillance operation for the inside of the church. The state service was watching and tapping the phones of members of the Synod, the Patriarch, his assistants, bishops, priests, and nuns since 2014.[57]
The documents are organized thematically and some concern criminal activities such as sexual relations with minors, corruption, or espionage for Russia. They also contain information on intimate relationships, drug use, and business activities.[58]
The Georgian Orthodox Church is managed by theHoly Synod, headed by theCatholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia. The Holy Synod is the collective body of bishops of the church. In addition to the Patriarch, the Synod comprises 38 members, including 25metropolitan bishops, 5archbishops and 7 simplebishops. As of 2012, the following bishops are members of the Holy Synod, in such hierarchical order:[59]
The first head bishop of the Georgia Church to carry the title of Patriarch wasMelkisedek I (1010–1033). Since 1977,Ilia II (born in 1933) has served as the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia and Archbishop ofMtskheta andTbilisi. Here is a list of the Catholicos-Patriarchs since the church restored autocephaly in 1917:[60]
Heiser, Lothar (1989).Die georgische orthodoxe Kirche und ihr Glaubenszeugnis [The Georgian Orthodox Church and its testimony of faith]. Trier: Paulinus-Verlag,ISBN3-7902-1413-2.
Grdzelidze, Tamara; George, Martin; Vischer, Lukas (2006).Witness Through Troubled Times: A History of the Orthodox Church of Georgia, 1811 to the Present. London: Bennett & Bloom,ISBN1-898948-68-2.
Lomidze, Ephräm Givi (2022).Historisch-theologische Rekonstruktion des apostolischen Ursprungs der Kirche Georgiens. Zur Frage der Tradition der antiochenisch-petrinischen Sukzession auf der Basis der Quellen bis Mitte des 12. Jahrhunderts [Historical-theological reconstruction of the apostolic origin of the Church of Georgia. On the question of the tradition of the Antiochian-Petrine succession on the basis of the sources up to the middle of the 12th century]. Sankt Ottilien: EOS,ISBN978-3-8306-8144-1.
^The ROCsevered full communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2018, and later severed full communion with theprimates of the Church of Greece, the Patriarchate of Alexandria, and the Church of Cyprus in 2020.
^abcdefghiAutocephaly or autonomy is not universally recognized.
^UOC-MP has moved to formally cut ties with the ROC as of 27 May 2022.
^Semi-autonomous part of theRussian Orthodox Church whose autonomy is not universally recognized.
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