Armenia, the oldest Christian nation
Joaquim Magalhães de Castro
A group of archaeologists recently announced the discovery of the remains of a 4th-century church in Artaxata, the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Armenia, which coincidentally occurred at the time when Pope Francis appointed the Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians Raphaël Bedros XXI Minassian as a new member of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches.
A repeated ringing of bells in the patriarchal convent of Bzommar, Lebanon, announced the election of the prelate born on November 24, 1946, in the country’s capital, educated at the Patriarchal Seminary of the aforementioned city and who years later, in Rome, would study philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Until then, Archbishop Raphaël Bedros had served as titular archbishop of Caesarea of Cappadocia for the Armenians and as Ordinary, serving the Armenian Catholic faithful of Eastern Europe, and in 2021 he succeeded Archbishop Gregory Peter XX Ghabroyan, who died in May of that year. It is also worth mentioning that Archbishop Raphaël Bedros studied at the Pontifical Salesian University, specializing in psychopedagogy, and after almost two decades of priestly activities in various Lebanese parishes, he moved to the United States, where, until 2003, he worked as a pastor for Armenian Catholics in California, Arizona and Nevada. He works at Telepace Armenia (audiovisual sector), which he helped to found, and is the current president of Caritas Armenia.
The remains of the recently-discovered church of Artaxata were unearthed by a joint team of archaeologists from the University of Münster (Germany) and the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, who have been excavating at that exact site since September. The ruin “consists of an octagonal building with cruciform extensions” that “corresponds to the earliest Christian memorial buildings”, as stated in a press release by the prestigious German university.
During the excavations, fragments of marble were found that demonstrate “the decorative richness” and the “extreme quality” of the materials used. In the cross-shaped extensions, the archaeologists also discovered the remains of wooden platforms, which after radiocarbon analysis point to the mid-4th century AD. This dating allowed the researchers to determine that the structure “is the oldest archaeologically documented church in the country – clear evidence of early Christianity in Armenia”, as highlighted by Prof. Achim Lichtenberger from the University of Münster.
The now-ruined city of Artaxata, located on a hilltop in southern Armenia along the border with Turkey, was founded in 176 BC and became an important metropolis especially during the Hellenistic period, serving as the capital of the Kingdom of Armenia for almost six centuries.
The same hill, which offers spectacular views of Mount Ararat across the Turkish border, is also home to the ancient monastery of Khor Virap, still active and an important pilgrimage site.
The discovery of this church makes perfect sense, as the Kingdom of Armenia was the first state to adopt Christianity as its official religion in the early 4th century. It was at this time that an Armenian community was established in Jerusalem, a presence that continues to this day.
The Kingdom of Armenia, then a client state of the Roman Empire, formally became Christian in 301 AD, when, according to legend, Gregory the Illuminator converted the Armenian king Tiridates III to Christianity in Artaxata. All this took place long before the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, which codified and simplified the various dogmas of Christianity, and, above all, even before the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, with which the Roman Emperor Constantine prohibited the persecution of Christians and authorized their religious practices. For this reason, Armenia is considered the first Christian kingdom and the Armenian Orthodox Church is one of the oldest Christian denominations. The country is also home to a significant number of Armenian Catholics, who have distinct traditions and are loyal to the Pope and the Church of Rome.
It is worth remembering that Armenia already boasts what some consider to be the oldest cathedral in the world: the Etchmiadzin Cathedral, built in 301 AD in the city of Vagharshapat, at the time of the conversion of King Tiridates III, but it is not clear which structure holds the “title of oldest church”. Among the oldest known Christian houses of worship are the Dura-Europos house church in Syria, believed to have been a private home converted into a Christian house of worship in the mid-3rd century AD; the Meggido Church in Israel, also dating from the early 3rd century and believed to have been repurposed in a similar way; and finally the Aqaba Church in Jordan from the late 3rd century, considered “the earliest purpose-built Christian house of worship yet discovered.”
The German-Armenian team, working in Artaxata since 2018, said it will continue its excavations and hopes to make new discoveries, including “the question to whom the church was dedicated to.”
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