Worship In The Armenian Church

The liturgy of the Armenian church reveals the influence of many sources, but is basically of Syrian origin. It expresses the theme of sacrifice more than other Eastern liturgies and has the flavor of a temple rite. The church of Armenia was evangelized from Edessa, and later by missionaries from Cappadocia. Its early liturgy was thus both Syrian and Greek. Its evolution as the Armenian church, with its own distinctive liturgy, is due to Gregory the Illuminator, a late third/early fourth century aristocrat who was converted to Christianity in Caesarea (Cappadocia), and who returned to Armenia to convert the king (Tiridates II) who had been, up to then, persecuting the Christians. As a result, Christianity became the state religion in a. d. 301, and Gregory became the leader (Catholicos) of the Armenian church. The Church Gregory is not acclaimed as the "apostle of Armenia. " The legends which recount the origin of Christianity in Armenia attribute [early evangelization] to Jude, T…