Religion and History in Armenia

Armenia's claim to be the first Christian state rests on the conversion of King Trdat III by Gregory the Illuminator, traditionally dated to 301, which places it ahead of Constantine's empire by a decade or more. The date is debated by historians, some preferring 314, but the priority is not seriously in question. What followed mattered as much as the conversion.

Around 405 Mesrop Mashtots devised an alphabet for Armenian so that scripture could be read in the language people spoke, and the translation that resulted is called the Queen of Translations; the alphabet made possible a continuous literature and is the reason Armenian identity survived the loss of the Armenian state for most of the next fifteen centuries. In 451 the Armenian church, occupied that year with the battle of Avarayr against Sasanian Persia over an attempt to impose Zoroastrianism, did not attend the Council of Chalcedon and subsequently rejected its formula on the natures of Christ, placing Armenia among the Oriental Orthodox churches alongside the Copts, Syriacs and Ethiopians. The monasteries carved into gorges at Geghard and Tatev, and the khachkars, intricately carved cross stones of which tens of thousands survive, are the visible remains of that long medieval church.