Catholicate of Abkhazia

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The Catholicate of Abkhazia (

Bichvinta (now Pitsunda) in Abkhazia (hence, the name of the Catholicate), but was moved to the Gelati Monastery in Imereti in the late 16th century. In 1814, the office of the Catholicos of Abkhazia was abolished by the Russian Empire
which would take control of the Georgian church until 1917.

History

Bichvinta (Pitsunda) Cathedral, the earliest residence of the Catholicate of Abkhazia.

The date when the Catholicate of Abkhazia was established is not completely clear with some scholars dating it to the 9th or 10th centuries.

Patriarch of Antioch, during the rule of the Imeretian king Bagrat VI (1463-1478).[3] To justify the break with the Mtskheta see, Michael issued a special document, The Law of Faith, in which he stated that western and eastern Georgia had different histories of conversion and, therefore, they should be independent from each other.[citation needed
]

Gelati Monastery, the later seat of the Catholicoi of Abkhazia

Thus, the Catholicoi of Abkhazia became independent and later assumed the title of Patriarch. Their spiritual jurisdiction extended over the Kingdom of Imereti and its vassal principalities –

St. Andrew, who, according to a medieval Georgian tradition, preached Christianity in western Georgia, then known to the Classical authors as Colchis. At various periods of its existence, the Catholicate of Abkhazia was subdivided into several dioceses (eparchies), including those of Bichvinta, Kutaisi, Gelati, Tsageri, Tsaishi, Tsalenjikha, Chkondidi, Khoni, Ninotsminda, Nikortsminda, Shemokmedi, Jumati, Dranda, Bedia and Mokvi, centered on the respective cathedrals.[1]

In the latter part of the 16th century, Catholicos Patriarch Eudemos I (

Imperial Russia in 1810, the Catholicate of Abkhazia was also abolished, in 1814, by the Russian authorities and annexed to the Exarchate of Georgia, a subdivision of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose part it was until the restoration of the unified and autocephalous Georgian Orthodox Church in 1917.[1]

In 2009 the Abkhazian Orthodox Church was established as a continuation of the Catholicate of Abkhazia, though this church remains today (2019) as noncanonical within the Eastern Orthodox Church.[4]

Catholicoi of Abkhazia

  • Nicholas (latter part of the 13th century)
  • Arsenius (c. 1390)
  • Daniel (late 14th century)
  • Joachim (1470s)
  • Stephan (1490-1516)
  • Malachia I Abashidze (1519-1540)
  • Eudemios I Chkhetidze (1557-1578)
  • Euthymius I Sakvarelidze (1578-1616)
  • Malachia II Gurieli (1616-1639)
  • Gregory I (1639)
  • Maxim I Machutasdze (1639-1657)
  • Zachary Kvariani (1657-1660)
  • Simeon I Chkhetidze (1660-1666)
  • Eudemios II Sakvarelidze (1666-1669)
  • Euthymius II Sakvarelidze (1669-1673)
  • David Nemsadze (1673-1696)
  • Gregory II Lordkipanidze (1696-1742)
  • German Tsulukidze (1742-1751)
  • Bessarion Eristavi (1751-1769)
  • Joseph Bagrationi (1769-1776)
  • Maxim II Abashidze (1776-1795)
  • Dositheus Tsereteli (de facto; 1795-1814)

Self-proclaimed Catholicoi of Abkhazia

  • Vissarion Aplaa as Primate of the Abkhazian Orthodox Church since 2009

References

  1. ^ a b c d (in Russian) АБХÁЗСКИЙ (ЗАПАДНОГРУЗИНСКИЙ) КАТОЛИКОСÁТ (по материалам статьи из «Православной энциклопедии». Т.1. М., 2000. С.67-72)
  2. ISBN 978-1-78023-070-2
    .
  3. ^ Ш. Гугушвили; А. Ю. Виноградов (2018). "ОЧЕРК ИСТОРИИ АБХАЗСКОГО КАТОЛИКОСАТА. ЧАСТЬ 2. XI–XV ВВ" (PDF). Богословские труды (in Russian) (47–48): 317. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  4. ^ "Russian Orthodox Church 'Respects' Georgian Church Authority over Abkhazia, S.Ossetia". Civil.ge. Civil.ge. 16 September 2009. Retrieved 2 December 2021.

Sources

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