How can the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church be national (Azgayin/Zhogovrdakan) and at the same time be confessing a belief in the “One, Holy, Catholic, and a Apostolic” church? Although in later times, the descriptive adjective "universal" (Endhanrakan) was used as synonymous with "catholic", it is obvious that its original meaning did not refer to geography. ”Catholicity” was a sign of the presence of Christ in the Church, in His Word and in the mystery of the Eucharist, “wherever two or three” were gathered in His name (Mt.18:12), in each local community of Christians.
There is no way in which one can claim to be a Christian except through concrete membership in the catholic (Universal) Church and through a continuous effort at manifesting the catholicity of the Church. The tradition, and the only possible, Orthodox approach to “catholicity” is rooted in the fullness of God’s Trinitarian life and is therefore a gift of God, to men, thus making the Church the “Church of God”.
Orthodox ecclesiology is based on the notion that a local Christian community, gathered in the name of Christ, presided over by a bishop, and celebrating the Eucharistic meal, is indeed the “catholic Church” and the Body of Christ – not a “fragment” of the Church, or only part of the Body. This is because the Church is “catholic” through Christ, not through its human membership.
The doctrine of “catholicity” implies the legitimate possibility of cultural, liturgical, and theological diversity in the one Church of Christ. This is why true mission is always directed not only to those who are formally outside of the church, but to insiders also. The Church has always adopted the historical ways and ethos of the various nations. She adopted their languages and shaped their cultures. Quite legitimately she became Serbian in Serbia, Russian in Russia, Georgian in Georgia, and Armenian (Hayastaneayts) in Armenia.
The Eastern Orthodox Church is made of fifteen national churches; and the Oriental Orthodox communion has five national churches in their family.
For the Roman Catholic Church there is only one episcopate ("episcopatus unus est") and one Catholic Church, while in the Protestant churches there is only the congregational, or sectarian understanding of church life.
The Armenian Church through its Divine Liturgy subscribes to the theology of the church outlined above:
« Կեցո զժողովուրդս քո եւ օրհնեա զժառագութիւնս քո. զլրումն Եկեղեցւոյ քո պահեա ("guard the fullness of thy Church") supported by the necessity that « Յիշեա,Տէր,եւ ողորմեա եւ օրհնեա զամենայն ուղղափառ եպիսկոպոսունս, որք ուղիղ վարդապետոէթեամբ համառօտեն ի մեզ զբանն ճշմարտութեան» ("Be mindful, Lord, and have mercy and bless all the orthodox bishops who teach to us the word of truth in orthodox doctrine").
The transformation of the Armenian Church into a national (azgayin) was a result of the imperialism of the Byzantine and Roman Catholic Churches, who spared no effort to subjugate and absorb these nations east and south of the Empire. The national character of the Armenian Church was a result of a long process.
The Armenian Catholicos Nerses I Partev, called the Great (357-73), created a group of teachers and writers called “Translators” [Թարգմանիչ վարդապետք] whose task was to render worship in the Armenian Church from Greek and Syriac into Armenian. He convened the first Armenian Church council, c.354 in Ashtishat, in which rules were formulated for the reform of moral discipline in the country and the establishment of monastic and charitable institutions, following the example of his contemporaries Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nysa, Gregory of Nazianzus, with whom he had studied while a student in Caesarea.
In 387 AD as a result of the partition of Armenia between Rome and Persia Armenia ceased to be a Diocese of the Exarchate of Caesarea. Catholicos Sahak I (387-436) was the first catholicos of the Armenian Church who was elected to that position without seeking approval from the See of Caesarea in 389.
After a steady growth the complete autonomy of the Armenian Church was realised at the Council of Shahapivan, in 444, when Sahak’s successor Hovsep I was confirmed first locum tenens (437-44) and then Catholicos in 452. Thus the factual independence of the Armenian Church was made permanent.
The next step was the urgent need to replace Greek and Syriac as the official languages of the church. Movses Khorenatsi writes: “When Armenia was divided (in 387 between Rome and Persia) the Persian governors did not allow instruction in Greek literature in their part of the country, but only Syriac". While Ghazar Parpetsi records "The worship of the church and the readings of scripture were conducted in Syriac in the monasteries and churches of Armenia, but the congregations of such a large country were quite unable to comprehend or profit from it, because they did not understand the Syriac language".
The missionary and literary labours of St Mesrop Mashtots (361-440) and Catholicos St Sahak I (388-436) and their disciples shaped the destiny of the Armenian people and Church for succeeding generations. In 405 (or 393) Mashtots invented the Armenian script of 36 letters. They spearheaded the creation of the Armenian Christian literature under the patronage of King Vramshapuh (389-415). The entire Bible in Classical Armenian was available to the Armenian faithful by 413 AD. Classical Armenian became the seventh in the list of languages into which the Bible has been translated. In the order of time, Greek was the first, then Syriac, followed by Latin, Coptic, Gothic, Ethiopian and Armenian. The result and achievement of their labour is best described by Koriwn in these words: "At that time our blessed and desirable land of Armenia became truly worthy of admiration, where by the hands of two colleagues, suddenly, in an instant, Moses, the law-giver, along with the order of the prophets, energetic Paul with the phalanx of the apostles, along with Christ’s world-sustaining gospel, became Armenian speaking ("հայաբարբառք հայերէնախօսք գտան").
Yeghishe Vardapet in his work Concerning Vardan and the Armenian War (Vasn Vardanay ev Hayots Paterzmin) defines the struggle of 451 with the Persians, as a struggle for the protection of the glory and liberty of the Church in general and the Armenian Church in particular. Yeghishe writes: "We are ready to suffer persecution, death, and all sorts of violence and afflictions for our holy churches, which our forefathers entrusted to us by the grace of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and through which we were reborn... since we recognise as our father the holy gospel, and the apostolic catholic church our mother" ("...հայր մեր զսուրբ աւետարանն գիտեմք,եւ մայր՝ զառաքելական եկեղեցի կաթողիկէ") [Book III, p.67].
In Book VII Yeghishe devotes a section to the wifes of the Armenian noblemen who were fighting on the front describing them as "the delicate ladies of the Armenian world who were raised daintily and had lived delicate lives ... went to the places of worship on foot and barefoot, psalms were the constant murmurings on their lips ... and their perfect solace was the readings from the books of the prophets". Yeghishe in his History uses the definition «ուխտ եկեղեցւոյ» (covenant) for the church by which he has no doubt in mind the undivided universal Church. This is also an evidence that the date of his composing his History must have been before the division of the church in 451 AD following the Council of Chalcedon.
The Council of Chalcedon, held in 451 at Chalcedon, was the cause of the first schism in the Universal Church. The condemnation and rejection of the doctrinal formulations accepted at the council separated the non-Greek autonomous churches of the East, namely the Coptic, the Syrian, the Ethiopian and the Syrian Church of South India. At the first Council of Dvin (506), Catholicos Babgen I Otmsetsi (490-516) with 32 bishops and the Catholicoses of Georgia and Aghvank rejected the Council of Chalcedon. This was a decision taken 55 years after the council on purely theological grounds and not to further the independence of the Armenian Church. In 608/9 the Georgian Church in the person of Catholicos Koriwn deviated from the orthodoxy of the Council of Dvin and separated from the Armenian Church.
The national character of the Armenian Church has also left its traces in the Divine Liturgy of the Armenian Church. In the Prayer of Intercessions of the original Byzantine text we have introduced the Intercession:
Of our leaders and first enlighteners, the holy apostles,
Thaddeus (43-66),
Bartholomew (60-68),
And of Gregory the Enlightener (302-325),
of Aristakes (I Partew, 325-333),
of Vrtanes (I Partew, 333-341)
Yusik (I Partew, 341-347),
Grigoris (grandson of Saint Gregory the Illuminator and twin brother of the Catholicos Yusik, martyred at the age of 42 in 337 AD),
Nerses I Partew ( 353-373)
Sahak I Partew (387-436, contemporary and co-worker with Mesrop Mashtots),
Daniel (Syrian bishop, supervisor of the shrine at Ashtishat and missionary to Persia, installed by St Gregory the Illuminator)
Xad (disciple and deacon of Catholicos St Nerses I Partew)
St Mesrop Mashtots (360-440 inventor of the Armenian alphabet)
St Grigor Narekatsi (947-1003, author of Matyan Voghbergoutyan (Book of Lamentations)
Nerses IV Klayetsi, called Graceful (Shnorhali) (Catholicos of All Armenians, 1166-1173)
Yovhannes Vorotnetsi (1315-1387, Armenian philosopher of the Tatew University)
Grigor Tatevatsi (1344?-1409, Armenian philosopher of the Tatew University)
Movses Tatevatsi (III, Catholicos 1629-1632).
This constant need to make the church relevant to its people and the great events of Armenian church history have been marked in the church with specific memorials. Memorial Office is celebrated on the Feast Day of the Battle of Avarayr, the invention of the Armenian alphabet, the translation of the Bible into Armenian (Feast of the Translators), Commemoration of the return of the Holy See to Etchmiadzin in 1441, the Genocide of the Armenians by the Turks on 24 April 1915, the Battle of Sardarabad 21-29 May 1918, the founding of the First Republic of Armenia on 28 May (1918-1920), the independence of Armenia from USSR on 21st September 1991. Few of the most loved pre-Christian festivals have been matched with the major Dominical Feasts: Terendez (Presentation of Our Lord to the Temple), Vardavar (Feast of the Transfiguration), Blessing of the Grapes (Feast of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary), the Feast of Varaga Cross.
This proves that the process of the Armenian Church becoming a national church ("zhoghovrdakanatsoum") has been a rather long one. Each nation should have its own administratively independent and culturally distinct church, and the Armenian Church became a national church at the beginning of the fifth century, when our church stood on its own feet with its own organisation and culture, having matured and outgrown the need for outside missionaries, foreign language literature, and external spiritual guidance. This kind of "nationalism" is natural as well as desirable, inasmuch as each church must make her own the cultural heritage of their people whose spiritual welfare is her principal concern and whose clergy are called upon to work primarily for the salvation of their own kind and serve the spiritual needs of the nation of which they are a natural part.