THE GEORGIAN CHURCH

The Georgian church is the dominant religious institution of the nation, despite the last century of persecution by the Soviet and its jurisdictional dispute with the Russian Orthodox Church. Moreover, the church in Georgia is one of the oldest churches in the world, resting with Ethiopia and Armenia as one of the oldest nations to convert to Christianity. It asserts that its foundations were laid in the first century by St. Andrew the Apostle, who began the evangelization of Iberia and Greek Colchis, which would later be completed by St. Nino in the 4th century.  King Mirian III of Iberia would officially accept orthodox Christianity in the year 337 AD, and establish the Georgian church in its current form. While historically tied to both the Byzantine church and the neighboring Armenian church, the ancient church in Georgia developed a unique style of its own liturgically and as a matter of church governance. Some of its writers and intellectual, such as St. Hilarion and St. Dionysius the Areopagite (Peter the Iberian) would go on to influence the rest of Christianity with their philosophical and theological writings.