Christianity is one of the most popular religions among the world religions. It has followers and churches all over the world. In some continents (Europe, America, Australia) it is almost the dominant religion. In the developed Western world, Christianity is the only religion that is unique to Western civilization, even though Christianity originated in the East.

The Persians had a great influence on the religious beliefs of the Armenian population. Most of the names of Armenian gods are of Persian origin (Aramazd, Vahagn, Mihr, Tir, etc.). In addition, the concept of the underworld, as well as heaven and hell, have their roots in Persia. Assyrian beliefs also had an influence on the formation of religious views of the country.

Ancient Armenians in ancient times had special respect to the Sun and the Moon. Every event on Earth was connected to the heavenly bodies. They also worshiped nature. Momomism was also characteristic of Armenians: worshiping snakes, plants, fire, and water.

The elements of Zoroastrianism were eradicated from Armenia in the 6th - 5th centuries BC.

A new era began in the world civilization, when the new, monotheistic religion, Christianity, came to replace the pagan religion and the worship of many idols that was experiencing a crisis. The founder of the new religion was the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who acted in Judea. He preached love for people, nature and the whole world. With the birth of Christ a new era and a new stage of civilization has begun. On demand of Jewish religious people, the Romans crucified Jesus Christ in 33 AD. They were crucified in Jerusalem. However, this did not stop the spread of new teachings and new ideas of human morality throughout the world.

The 12 disciples of Christ, the apostles and many followers, began to preach the Christian doctrine in all countries. At first, the new teaching was received with hostility everywhere, Christians were persecuted, who had to act in strict secrecy.

Despite the difficulties, the number of Christians in many countries of the world grew day by day, including not only the lower classes, but also the broad classes of the nobility.

In many countries, prerequisites were gradually being created to make Christianity the state religion instead of the pagan beliefs that no longer met the spiritual needs of the masses.    

The new religion, the new ideas of morality and human way of life preached by him were also spread in Armenia.

Armenia was the first country in the world, which in 301 declared Christianity the state religion. The Armenian people were the first to perceive and accept the progressive ideas of the new doctrine, refused the outdated pagan beliefs and created a new and progressive culture on the basis of the Christian faith, tried to rely on the new humanistic principles of morality. In Armenia, according to tradition, two of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ, Thaddeus and Bartholomew, who became victims of the persecutions of King Sanatruk, preached Christianity and created Christian communities and organizations - churches. 

The Armenian Church is called Apostolic because its organizational foundation was laid by those Apostles. II-III centuries the number of clandestine Christian communities in Armenia increased.  

The Armenian king Tiridates III the Great (287-330) also persecuted Christians in the beginning. He tortured and imprisoned Gregory the Illuminator, an active preacher of Christianity, in the royal prison of Khor Virap in Artashat. It became known to the King that Gregory was not only a Christian, but also the son of Anak Parthev, who killed his father Khosrov II. Perhaps Gregory would have remained in prison and Tiridates would not have been converted, if an interesting but tragic event had not happened.

In the Roman Empire, severe persecutions began against Christians, most of whom were forced to seek refuge in Armenia, where there was no mass persecution. Among those refugees was a group of Christian virgins led by Gayane. In that group was the beautiful Hripsime.

Tiridates the Great fell in love with Hripsime and tried to marry her. However, the virgin who dedicated herself to the service of Christ did not want to marry, especially with a pagan. Enraged Tiridates ordered to torture to death Hripsime, Gayane and the other virgins. Soon Tiridates deeply regretted for his cruelty and fell ill, falling into severe mental stress. According to tradition, due to the dream of the king's sister Khosrovadukht, Gregory the Illuminator was released from prison and he healed and converted Tiridates.

Gregory the Illuminator

In 301 the Armenian king, his family, ministers and army were baptized by Gregory the Illuminator, who became the first Armenian Catholicos, in the Aratsan River near Ashtishat settlement of Taron.

Pagan beliefs were forbidden in Armenia and Christianity was declared the state religion. In Ashtishat, the important spiritual center of the country, the temples of Aramazd, Vahagn, Anahit were destroyed and the first Christian church was built. In Vagharshapat at the places of martyrdom of the virgins, churches were built in their names as well as the Cathedral. All pagan temples were turned into churches, all spiritual and material culture was destroyed so that nothing reminded of the old gods. It was quite a heavy blow to the Armenian culture of millennia. However, it needed long time that the Christianity penetrated into all classes of the people and finally drove out the remnants of paganism.

Thus, Armenia became the first country where Christianity, which was severely persecuted in all other countries, was recognized as the state religion. This was done in a period when our two neighboring superpowers, Persia and Rome, were hostile to the new religion and tried to persecute the Armenian people. Armenia had to be strong enough and independent to be able to go against them and make a spiritual and cultural revolution.

However, Armenia did not have to fight for a long time against the former ally Rome. In 313 in the Roman Empire, it was allowed to profess Christianity freely among other religions and in 324 it became the state religion, but the pagan religions were not forbidden. Only in 381 Christianity was declared the official and only religion of Rome.

Tiridates the Great donated all the property of pagan temples and priests and other estates to the church. The tithe, one-tenth of the entire harvest of the land was given to the church. The successive kings and major ministers gave new riches to the church. Thus, the church over time became one of the largest landowners in the country and yielded only to the royal court.

Due to its economic power and wealth, the Armenian Church gained great political influence and gradually became one of the ruling powers of the country.

The Armenian Apostolic Church was initially a part of the Christian world church. The creed of the Armenian Church is based on the decisions of the first three Ecumenical Councils of the Christian Church (Nicaea: 325, Constantinople: 380, Ephesus: 431).

As a result of the decisions made at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the Universal Christian Church was split, the Armenians rejected the Orthodox direction, which isolated the Armenians from the entire Christian world. Finally, the Armenian Church separated from the Byzantine Church and became independent in 554.

The Armenian Church played an important role in preserving the unified statehood and after the loss of that important national value, the Church took over the leadership of the Armenian people, the whole burden of preserving and developing our culture, led the liberation movements, instilled and kept alive the national consciousness among the Armenian youth.