The Armenian Tradition

In Brief

The Armenian tradition is one of the liturgical traditions the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches names in its own right (can. 28 §2), alongside the Alexandrian, Antiochene, Chaldean, and Constantinopolitan traditions — not as a branch of any of them, whatever the older Western surveys say. It has a single rite, the Surb Patarag — the Divine Liturgy — celebrated alike by the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Catholic Church. The ordinary liturgy has one eucharistic prayer in use: the anaphora the manuscripts entitle "of St Athanasius" — a traditional title, not demonstrated authorship; the Council of Sis in 1342 already quoted the ordinary liturgy as the "missale S. Athanasii."¹²

Its distinctive marks are among the oldest attested in the East. The chalice is offered unmixed — wine alone — a practice the Byzantine council of Trullo was already noting in 692. The bread is unleavened, and the custom is native: its earliest probable reference is late sixth-century, and James of Edessa was writing tracts against Armenian azymes in the seventh — before any Latin contact that could have lent the practice to Armenia. Christmas and the Theophany are kept together on 6 January, the East's original date of Christmas; the liturgical language is Classical Armenian.³⁴²

The rite is visibly layered, and the layering has a scholarly reading worth naming as such. Findikyan finds a Syriac and Cappadocian base — Edessa and Caesarea were Armenia's two ancient Christian centres — then the fifth-century translation of Jerusalem's lectionary, which gave the Armenian year Jerusalem's shape; over that a Byzantine overlay that reached its height early in the second millennium; and, at the beginning and the end, a Latin frame — the Confiteor and Psalm 43 at the ascent — from the Crusader-era contacts. The anaphora follows the Antiochene order: dialogue, preface, Sanctus, institution, anamnesis, epiclesis, intercessions — the epiclesis asking the Father to send the Holy Spirit, "changing them by thy Holy Spirit."⁴⁵²

The signature fact is that one rite is shared across the schism: the Armenian Apostolic Church — the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the Catholicosate of Cilicia at Antelias, the Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Constantinople — and the Armenian Catholic Church, the Patriarchate of Cilicia seated at Bzommar, celebrate the same Patarag. The two Cilician sees are distinct and must be kept so. The Holy See's joint declarations with Etchmiadzin — 1996, 2001, 2016 — contain no provision on eucharistic sharing.⁶⁷⁸

Member Rites & Uses

• Armenian RiteRite

Churches

Catholic Churches sui iuris

• Armenian Catholic ChurchPatriarchal Church¹⁰

Other Churches sharing the tradition

• Armenian Apostolic ChurchOriental Orthodox Church: the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin; the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia (Antelias); the Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Constantinople⁹

Signature

Calendar

Christmas and the Theophany kept together on 6 January — 'the original date of Christmas in the East, before it was transferred to December 25'; the Gregorian calendar since 1923, except the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which keeps the Julian⁴

Bread

Unleavened bread (azymes): native to the tradition — the 'earliest probable reference' is late sixth-century, and James of Edessa (d. 708) wrote tracts against Armenian azymes in the seventh century^2,4

Languages

Classical Armenian (grabar): the liturgical language since the early-fifth-century translations, when Mesrop Mashtots' alphabet gave Armenian its own Bible and liturgy; the Armenian Catholic Church approved a Western Armenian translation of the Badarak in 2006 (book, 2007)^4,11

Typical anaphora shape

One ordinary anaphora, titled 'of St Athanasius' in the manuscripts, in the Antiochene order: dialogue, preface, Sanctus, institution, anamnesis, epiclesis, intercessions²

The Shape of the Liturgy

The epiclesis follows the institution narrative — the Antiochene order: the priest asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit, 'changing them by thy Holy Spirit'.²

• Opening dialogue
• Preface / thanksgiving
• Sanctus
• Institution narrative
• Anamnesis
• Epiclesis (after anamnesis)
• Intercessions

Each colour is one part of the eucharistic prayer, in the order the prayer says it. Compare every anaphora.

History

Armenia's conversion carries the traditional date of 301: the first Christian state, King Trdat baptised by St Gregory the Illuminator. The Armenian Church keeps the date, and the Holy See uses it in its own voice — the 1700th anniversary was celebrated in 2001. Scholars date Gregory's consecration at Caesarea to about 314/315. The Caesarean connection is the rite's first stratum: Armenia's early Christianity looked to Edessa and Caesarea both.⁹⁷¹²⁴

The alphabet came next. Mesrop Mashtots' script is traditionally dated in or around 407; before it, Armenians used Greek and Syriac as their literary and liturgical languages. The early fifth-century Bible drew on Syriac texts from Edessa and Greek ones from Caesarea, and the Jerusalem lectionary was among the first books translated — the Armenian year took Jerusalem's shape, and the lectionary opens with Epiphany "kept in the month of January on the sixth day." By 389 Sahak was catholicos "without reference to Caesarea."¹³⁴⁵

The christological road was long. After Ephesus (431) Armenia moved away from the Syriac sphere toward the Greek imperial church. A synod under Babgen I at Dvin in 506 condemned Nestorius; the Second Council of Dvin under Nerses II, in 554–555, repudiated Chalcedon; a third synod, at Dvin in 607–608, anathematized it outright and broke with the Georgians. The Armenian Church is Oriental Orthodox — the Index's vocabulary is miaphysite.¹³¹⁴

Three ancient marks survived everything after. The unmixed chalice was already Armenian practice when Trullo canon 32 noted it in 692; Florence in 1439 decreed that Armenian priests mix water, as the whole Christian world does — the Catholic norm, not the Armenian custom. The unleavened bread has its earliest probable reference in the late sixth century, and James of Edessa's seventh-century tracts against Armenian azymes tell against any Latin origin. The 6 January feast is older than any council: it is Jerusalem's.³¹⁵²⁴

The Cilician centuries brought the West into the story: the principality rose from 1080, and Leo II was crowned king at Tarsus in 1199. The councils of Sis (1251, 1307, 1342) treated of union with Rome: Cilician Armenia accepted union at Sis in 1307, but it "failed to receive support outside Cilicia"; the kingdom fell to the Mamluks in 1375. The Crusader armies had brought Armenia its first sustained contact with the Christian West — the Latin frame of the liturgy and John XXII's Latin see at Nakhijevan in 1318.¹⁶¹³⁴

At Florence in 1439 the bull of union with the Armenians, Exsultate Deo, gave the Armenians the Creed of the 150 Fathers "with the added phrase and the Son," ordered it sung or read at Mass on Sundays and greater feasts "as is the Latin custom," and ordered water in the chalice. On bread it required nothing: the envoys acknowledged "that the body of the Lord is effected in leavened or unleavened wheat bread." On 25 December it ordered what the Armenian Church never adopted.¹⁵

Two years after Florence the Catholicosate was re-established at Etchmiadzin (1441) while the Sis line continued, becoming the Catholicosate of Cilicia at Antelias in 1930. In 1740 Abraham Ardzivian was elected Catholicos-Patriarch, confirmed by Benedict XIV in 1742: the Armenian Catholic Church took shape, seated at Bzommar since 1750. The century brought the genocide of 1915 — "the extermination of a million and a half Armenian Christians" — the Gregorian calendar in 1923, and Gregory of Narek proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 2015. The Athanasius anaphora is still the Churches' daily prayer; Feulner's 2001 critical edition is the scholarly starting point for reading it.^171816101920

Milestones

1. 301The traditional date: Armenia becomes the first Christian state; King Trdat baptised by St Gregory the Illuminator. Kept by the Church and the Holy See; scholars date Gregory's consecration at Caesarea to c. 314/315^4,7,9
2. c. 407Mesrop Mashtots' alphabet ('traditionally dated in or around 407'); the Bible and the Jerusalem lectionary translated into Armenian^4,13
3. 506Synod of Dvin under Babgen I, condemning Nestorius¹⁴
4. 554-555Second Council of Dvin under Nerses II: the repudiation of Chalcedon¹⁴
5. 692Trullo c. 32 attests the Armenian unmixed chalice — wine alone on the Holy Table³
6. 1307The Council of Sis accepts union with Rome; it fails outside Cilicia^13,16
7. 1439Florence, Session 8: Exsultate Deo — the Creed with the Filioque sung at Mass, water to be mixed in the chalice, bread 'leavened or unleavened'¹⁵
8. 1742Abraham (Peter) Ardzivian's union confirmed by Benedict XIV; the Armenian Catholic Church takes shape¹⁶

Sources

1. Magisterial / canonicalCode of Canons of the Eastern Churches, Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1990, can. 28 §2. LinkVerified 2026-09-12 · URL repointed 18 Sep 2026 to the Latin text on vatican.va (part 1; cann. 656–657 are in part 2, codex-can-eccl-orient-2), because the caedm.ca English extract (616A) carries cc. 27–38 only; cann. 28, 40 §1, 656, 657 read there in the Latin, 18 Sep 2026. English translation: cann. 27–28 read in the caedm.ca PDF; cann. 671, 697, 707, 710, 713 read in the IntraText English edition; can. 881 §1 in IntraText, 2026-09-14
2. Primary textBrightman, F. E., Liturgies Eastern and Western, vol. 1: Eastern Liturgies, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896, p. xcix; p. lxi; pp. 412-457; p. 439. LinkVerified 2026-09-12 · archive.org full text; pp. lxxxiii, lxxxv, lxxxviii–lxxxix checked; order locators spot-checked 13 Sep 2026 (pp. 362, 377–378, 393, 394; glossary s.v. Zeon, Cancelli, Ektene). Checked 19 Sep 2026 for the Ge'ez entry: Preface p. xiii, the Ethiopic translations are the Rev. C. J. Ball's ('the Rev. C. J. Ball for the Ethiopic (including the collation of the British Museum manuscripts)'); p. lxiii, the Egyptian rite; pp. lxxii-lxxiii, the Rome printing of 1548 ('Testamentum novum.. Missale') and the Lord's anaphora there; pp. 194-244, the Ethiopic Liturgy of the Apostles from BM Or. 545 (1670-75); p. 232, 'THIS bread… IS MY BODY' (a rubric between) and 'DRINK… THIS CUP'
3. Primary textCouncil in Trullo (Quinisext), “Canons”, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 14, 1900, can. 32. LinkVerified 2026-09-12 · cann. 32 and 52 read (NPNF tr. Percival)
4. ScholarshipFindikyan, Michael Daniel, “Armenian Liturgy”, New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed.. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · Full article read 19 Sep 2026 via encyclopedia.com (bibliography cites works to 2000, so 2nd ed.): the key layering source — Syriac/Cappadocian base, Jerusalem lectionary and year, Byzantine overlay apex 'early in the second millennium', Latin beginning and end integrated 'with great discretion'; unmixed chalice and azymes native; one anaphora 'since at least the tenth century'; figures c. 6,000,000 and 344,000 (c. 2000–2003)
5. Primary textConybeare, F. C. (ed.), Rituale Armenorum: being the Administration of the Sacraments and the Breviary Rites of the Armenian Church, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905, pp. 507-509; p. 517.Verified 2026-09-20 · PD translation read at the passages 19 Sep 2026 via archive.org (ritualearmenorum00cony): the old Jerusalem lectionary ('A record of the assemblies which are held in Jerusalem'); Khosrowik on the one-day Epiphany and Baptism (p. 508)
6. Magisterial / canonicalJohn Paul II and Karekin I, Common Declaration, Rome, 1996. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · Read in full 19 Sep 2026: Christological formula 'Perfect God as to His divinity, perfect man as to His humanity … without confusion, without alteration, without division, without any form of separation'; no eucharistic provision
7. Magisterial / canonicalJohn Paul II and Karekin II, Common Declaration, Holy Etchmiadzin, 2001. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · Read in full 19 Sep 2026: 'in A. D. 301' the Armenian people 'were bathed in the divine light'; 'the first genocide of the twentieth century'; no eucharistic provision
8. Magisterial / canonicalFrancis and Karekin II, Joint Declaration, Holy Etchmiadzin, 2016. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · Read in full 19 Sep 2026 (vatican.va: 'Sunday, 26 June 2016' — christianunity.va's '27 June' is wrong); closes with a prayer of St Nerses the Gracious; no eucharistic provision
9. Primary textMother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Overview. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · Read in full 19 Sep 2026: 'In 301, Armenia became the first state to declare Christianity as the state religion'; the four hierarchical sees
10. ReferencePRO ORIENTE (Vienna), The Armenian Catholic Church. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · Read in full 19 Sep 2026 (undated page): 'approximately 760,000' faithful; Raphaël Bedros XXI 'in office since 2021'; 18 bishops, 15 dioceses, 3 exarchates; Bzommar seat 'since 1750'; Mekhitar founded 1701
11. Primary textArmenian Catholic Patriarchate, Khorhrdatetr Surb Pataragi ew Tiv Surb Patarag (The Manual of the Mystery of the Holy Oblation: the Low Holy Patarag), Bzommar, 2007, pp. 7, 9-10.Verified 2026-09-20 · Full book read 19 Sep 2026 from the Patriarchate's Patarag page via own ArmSCII-8→Unicode conversion; Patriarch's decree 7 Nov 2006 (pp. 7, 9–10) read in translation: Western Armenian ashkharhabar approved ad experimentum for three years, for the low Badarak only. The conversion drops byte 0xFE (apostrophe): Armenian strings and transliterations need an Armenian reader before print
12. ReferenceMurphy, F. X., “Gregory the Illuminator, St.”, New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed.. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · Read in full 19 Sep 2026 via encyclopedia.com: consecrated by Leontius of Caesarea 'c. 315'
13. ScholarshipVan Rompay, Lucas, “Armenian Christianity, Syriac contacts with”, Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage (electronic edition, Beth Mardutho), 2011. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · Read in full 19 Sep 2026: alphabet 'traditionally dated in or around 407'; Sis 1307 union; 'straightforward rejection' of Chalcedon only at Dvin 607
14. ReferenceSetian, N. M., “Dwin”, New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed.. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · Read in full 19 Sep 2026 via encyclopedia.com: Dvin 506 (Babgen I), 554–555 (Nerses II), 607–608
15. Magisterial / canonicalCouncil of Florence, “Decrees (Laetentur caeli, 1439; Exsultate Deo, 1439)”, Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, ed. Norman Tanner, 1990, Exsultate Deo. LinkVerified 2026-09-12 · Exsultate Deo (DS 1321) and Laetentur caeli (DS 1303) read in Tanner's translation; DS numbers and Latin checked in Denzinger
16. ReferenceDevenny, J. A. (eds.), “Cilicia of the Armenians, Patriarchate of”, New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed.. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · Read in full 19 Sep 2026 via encyclopedia.com: Ardzivian elected 1740, pallium 1742; patriarch in Istanbul 1867–1928, Beirut from 1928; Apostolic Catholicosate of Sis 1293–1441, Lebanon (1928)
17. Primary textMother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Hierarchical Sees of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · Read in full 19 Sep 2026: Catholicosate of All Armenians; Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia (Antelias, Aram I since 1995); Patriarchates of Jerusalem ('Since 2013 … Nurhan Manookian') and Constantinople ('Since 2019 … Sahak Mashalyan')
18. Magisterial / canonicalJohn Paul II and Aram I, Common Declaration, Vatican, 1997. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · Read in full 19 Sep 2026: the Catholicosate of Sis 'stabilito ad Antelias, in Libano, nel 1930'
19. Magisterial / canonicalFrancis, Message on the centenary of 'Metz Yeghern' and the proclamation of St Gregory of Narek as Doctor of the Church, 2015. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · Read in full 19 Sep 2026: 'dating from the year 301'; Benedict XV's letter of 10 Sep 1915; styles for the three hierarchs: 'Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians', 'Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia', 'Patriarch of Cilicia of Armenian Catholics'
20. ScholarshipFeulner, Hans-Jürgen, “Die armenische Athanasius-Anaphora: Kritische Edition, Übersetzung und liturgievergleichender Kommentar”, Anaphorae Orientales 1 = Anaphorae Armeniacae 1, Rome: PIO, 2001, catalogue record.Verified 2026-09-20 · Catalogued (citation): PIO catalogue (xx + 536 pp.); the critical edition of the anaphora in use. Not opened