Armenian Apostolic Church

The Armenian Apostolic Church - also known as the Armenian Orthodox Church - is the national Church of Armenia and one of the constituent Churches of the Oriental Orthodox Church.

According to tradition, Christianity was brought to Armenia in the first century of the Christian Era by Bartholomew (Nathaniel) and Thaddeus (Jude), two of Jesus' twelve apostles. Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the country in 301 CE, when the Armenian Apostolic Church was founded.

In the fourth and fifth centuries Christian theologians disputed whether Jesus, as both fully divine and fully human, has two natures, a divine nature and a human nature, each distinct from, but very closely related to, the other (Dyophysitism) or only one nature, a divine nature which in some way includes or absorbs his humanity (Monophysitism). In 451 the ecumenical Council of bishops meeting at Chalcedon condemned Monophysitism as a heresy, and this led to a division within eastern Christianity between, on the one hand, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, and a number of other Monophysite Churches, which rejected the Council's decision, and, on the other hand, those Dyophysite Churches which accepted it. The former group of Churches today constitutes the Oriental Orthodox Church, while the latter group constitutes the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church is known as the Catholicos (from the Greek word καθολικόϛ (katholikos, meaning 'general or universal')), and the present Catholicos of All Armenians is Karekin II (1951-; elected Catholicos in 1999), who has his seat at Ejmiatsin (also spelt Echmiadzin), a city with a popluation of about 60,000 some 13 miles west of Yerevan.

See further Christian Heresies.