GEORGIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

autocephalous (independent) church of the Orthodox communion in Georgia. The church is one of the most ancient Christian communities in the world. The Georgians adopted Christianity through the ministry of a woman, St. Nino, early in the 4th century. Thereafter, Georgia remained in the ecclesiastical sphere of Antioch and also under the influence of neighbouring Armenia. Its autocephaly was probably granted by the Eastern Roman emperor Zeno (474491) with the consent of the patriarch of Antioch, Peter the Fuller. The heads of the Georgian church have since that time borne the title of catholicos. In the Middle Ages, Georgia experienced several periods of political expansion, during which the church developed remarkably rich traditions of art, architecture, and literature. In 1801, having been annexed by Russia, the country lost its political and ecclesiastical independence, and after 1817 the Georgian church was governed by Russian exarchs. During the Russian Revolution of 1917, the church reestablished its autocephalous catholicate. It was severely persecuted during the 1920s by the Soviet government, but under the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, a former Georgian seminarian, it seems to have enjoyed favourable treatment. In 1977, after the election of Catholicos Elias II, several vacant dioceses received new bishops, and a seminary, located in the historical seat of the catholicos in Mtskheta, was reorganized.