GEORGIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

GEORGIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH. Ancient Iberia, Georgia is a trans-Caucasian nation bordering Russia and Armenia, and boasts of being one of the first kingdoms to convert to Christianity. The “Apostle to the Georgians” was an anonymous woman, later given the name Nina, who converted the king, Mirian, around 330. Early placed under the jurisdiction of Antioch, the Georgian Church achieved self-governing status around 506, in connection with its (temporary) repudiation of Chalcedon in alliance with the Church of Armenia (qq.v.). The breach with Byzantium (q.v.) was repaired the following century, but the local Church retained its independence. From the 6th c. the primate of Georgia has borne the title “Catholicos,” and the Church first became autocephalous (q.v.) in the 8th c. Under constant pressure from Persia to the east, the Georgian Church and nation nonetheless achieved a peak of prosperity under the local branch of the Bagratid family (also ruling in Armenia), culminating in the “golden age” of Queen Tamara (d. 1212).

Georgian manuscripts from the period of the country’s medieval zenith provide valuable materials for scholars in both Scripture and patristic (qq.v.) studies. This is largely the fruit of medieval Georgian monasticism (q.v.) from its origins in Peter the Iberian (ca. 413–491). It spread throughout the Byzantine Near East, as witnessed by the late medieval foundation on Mt. Athos (q.v.) of the monastery of Iviron.

Struggles with both Iran and the Ottoman Empire (q.v.) compelled its last king to plead for Russian protection. The Georgian Kingdom was absorbed into the tsar’s Empire in 1811. Its local church became part of the Russian Church-perhaps the most notable case of Russian ecclesiastical imperialism. Autonomy was again secured, ecclesiastically if not politically, following the Bolshevik coup d’etat in 1917. It remains in effect today as the Georgian Church is experiencing a modest revival under its Catholicos, Ilias II.