The Armenian Uniate Succession

The original foundation of the Holy Apostolic Church of Armenia may be traced to Sts. Thaddeus and Eustatius (two of the Seventy).

The honor of converting the Armenians, as a nation, to Christ, was gained by St. Gregory the Diuminator, who is 302 was consecrated Archbishop of Etchmiadzme by St. Leontius Exarch of Caesarea in Cappadocia, originally within the Patriarchate of Antioch, and afterward within that of Constantinople.

In 364, the Armenian church was granted full autonomy as an autocephalous catholicate within the One Holy and Apostolic Church under the Patriarch of Etchmiadzine, Supreme Catholicos of all the Armenians.

In the 12th century, some of the Armenians began to contemplate union with Rome and the Catholicos was present as a guest of honor at the Latin Council of Antioch C1141) and later, at the Council of Florence (1439), formal union was proclaimed; but it remained a dead letter.

From 1701 attempts were made to found a Uniate body and in 1712, a line of Patriarchs of Cihcia of the Armenians was inaugurated by Rome in the person of Peter Abraham I, from which time the Armenian-Uniate Church has continued to this day.