A Brief History of the Abkhazian Orthodox Church, by Archimandrite Dorotheos (Dbar)

Originally published in 2005, A Brief History of the Abkhazian Orthodox Church by Hieromonk Dorofey (Dbar), Candidate of Theological Sciences (now Archimandrite), offers a comprehensive overview of the Church’s development from apostolic times to the early twenty-first century. This English translation has been prepared by AbkhazWorld to make this important theological and historical study accessible to a wider readership.

A Brief History of the Abkhazian Orthodox Church

From Apostolic Times to the Formation of the Abazgian Archbishopric

The history of Christianity in Abkhazia reaches back to the apostolic age. It is reliably attested that the Apostles Andrew the First-Called and Simon the Canaanite preached here. The latter, in the mid-first century, was beheaded by Roman legionaries in Anacopia (modern New Athos) and was buried there. A church dedicated to Simon the Canaanite still stands on the site of his burial.

There are also traditions that the Apostle Matthias (one of the Seventy) preached in Abkhazia and was buried in the city of Sebastopolis (modern Sukhum).

In the post-apostolic period Christianity spread into Abkhazia through church leaders, Christian soldiers, and state officials who had fallen into disfavour with Roman emperors and were exiled here. Among them were the soldier-martyr Orentius and his six brothers (4th century), two of whom — Orentius and Longinus — were buried in Pitsunda, and another in Zigane (the village of Gudava); the hieromartyr Basiliscus of Comana (4th century); St John Chrysostom, who died in Comana in 407; and Bessas, a military commander in the time of Emperor Justinian the Great.

At the beginning of the 4th century, an episcopal see was established in Pityus (modern Pitsunda), forming the first ecclesiastical institution in Abkhazia and laying the foundation for the future Abkhazian Church. Its first known bishop was Sophronius. In 325, Bishop Stratophilus of Pityus participated in the First Ecumenical Council. His name appears in nearly all surviving lists of participants of this authoritative Council.

The Pityus bishopric fell under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia (head of the Pontic Church), through the intermediary of the Metropolitan of Neocaesarea. Between the 4th and 7th centuries, seven basilican churches were constructed in Pitsunda, including a cathedral basilica adorned with the celebrated Pitsunda mosaic.

In the 5th century, a Christian community also emerged in Sebastopolis (modern Sukhum), headed by a bishop. Bishop Kerconius of Sebastopolis participated in the Fourth Ecumenical Council. An octagonal church dedicated to the soldier-martyr Orestes (4th–5th centuries) was built there. The name of this saint became known through archaeological excavations conducted in the late 1980s and early 1990s; he remains unknown to the wider Christian world.

In the 6th century, Emperor Justinian the Great, with the assistance of his chief eunuch Euphratas the Abazgian, completed the process of Christianising the ancient Abkhazian tribes. Christian education was provided for Abazgian children through the establishment of a special school for them in Constantinople. At the same time, the ecclesiastical structure in Abkhazia was reformed.

With the direct participation of the emperor, the autocephalous Abazgian eparchy was established, with its see in Sebastopolis (Sukhum). In place of the earlier bishoprics of Pityus and Sebastopolis, previously the only Christian communities headed by bishops, a network of episcopal sees (each with its cathedral church) was formed and united into a single Abazgian eparchy under an archbishop.

This was not yet an autocephalous (fully independent) Abkhazian Church in the complete sense of the term. In this context, “autocephaly” meant independence from the Metropolitan of Neocaesarea: the Archbishop of the Abazgs was directly subordinate to the Archbishop of Constantinople. Nevertheless, this represented a significant step towards the creation of a distinct Abkhazian Church.

From this time onward, Pitsunda gradually lost its status as the principal Christian centre of Abkhazia; that role passed to Sebastopolis (Sukhum).

Archaeological evidence shows that in the 6th–7th centuries the Abazgian eparchy — listed as number 34 among the autocephalous eparchies of the Church of Constantinople — included the following episcopal sees: Tsandripsh, Pitsunda, Anacopia, Sebastopolis, Tsebelda, and Gyuenos (Ochamchira). Each possessed cathedral churches and subsidiary churches throughout Abkhazia.

The most renowned surviving cathedrals of this period are the Tsandripsh Basilica (6th century) and the Dranda Cathedral (6th century). History has preserved the names of only two bishops from this era: Constantine, Bishop of Tsibilium (first half of the 6th century), and Theodore, Bishop of Pityus (7th century).

To the south-east, the Abazgian eparchy bordered the Lazic eparchy; to the north-west, the Zikh (Adyghe) eparchy. All these dioceses at that time formed part of the Church of Constantinople.

Particular note should be made of the role of Christianity in abolishing the slave trade in Abkhazia. With the full establishment of Christianity under Emperor Justinian in the 6th century, not only the sale of slaves but even the sale of castrated children was brought to an end. Yet with the decline of Christianity in Abkhazia a millennium later, this dreadful practice re-emerged in even more horrific forms.

The Eighth–Tenth Centuries — The Rise of the Abkhazian Catholicosate and the Medieval Kingdom

In the 7th century, the Abazgs, Apsils and Sanigs appear as fully Christian tribes. Their rulers once again offered protection to defenders of the Orthodox faith who had been exiled by Byzantine emperors adhering to heretical doctrines.

St Anastasius, disciple of the renowned Byzantine theologian and Father of the Church St Maximus the Confessor, wrote in the mid-7th century of Abkhazia as a land of “Christ-loving Abazgs”, and of its rulers as “Christ-loving leaders”. In one of his letters he also mentions a certain St Stephen, who preached in Abazgia and Apsilia and refuted the false teachings of the Monothelites. St Stephen died in the house of the “Christ-loving ruler of Abazgia” and was buried in Abkhazia.

Thus St Stephen, St Maximus the Confessor, St Anastasius, and Blessed Anastasius may be added to the list of saints of the Abkhazian Church.

The 8th–10th centuries represent a period of flourishing Christianity in Abkhazia. The finest achievements of ecclesiastical architecture and church art belong to this era. Its distinguishing feature was the dominant influence of the Abkhaz themselves over the life of their Church.

At the end of the 8th century, the medieval Orthodox Kingdom of Abkhazia emerged. Slightly earlier, the independent Abkhazian Church had also come into being. The formation of these two institutions was closely interconnected. The architects of the Abkhazian Orthodox state clearly understood that their political legitimacy was directly linked to the establishment of a national Church. The head of the Church performed the rite of royal anointing in accordance with Byzantine imperial practice.

In the mid-8th century, the leaders of Abkhazia sent a substantial ecclesiastical delegation to Antioch to obtain the consecration of a Catholicos, that is, the head of the Abkhazian Church. The Church of Constantinople, which defended the interests of the Byzantine Empire in Abkhazia, would never have granted independence to the Abkhazian Church. Therefore, the delegation was directed to the Church of Antioch, which, following the Arab conquests in the East, was independent in its actions from both the Byzantine emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Most members of the delegation perished on the journey at the hands of brigands; only two reached Antioch. At a council of the Church of Antioch, presided over by Patriarch Theophylact, it was decided to consecrate one of them — an Abkhaz named John — as the independent Catholicos [a title equivalent to Patriarch in certain Eastern churches], and the other as a bishop.

From that time onward, the Abkhazian Church possessed the right to elect and consecrate its Catholicos through a council of its own bishops, a right which the hierarchs of the former Abazgian eparchy had not held. The Abkhazian Catholicoi, however, were required to commemorate the Patriarch of Antioch during the Divine Liturgy. The cessation of canonical dependence upon Antioch likely occurred around the year 820, during the patriarchate of Job of Antioch.

Upon his return to Abkhazia, Catholicos John, the first head of the Abkhazian Church, chose Pitsunda, rather than Sebastopolis, as his episcopal seat. Sebastopolis had long remained a stronghold of Greek influence and of the Church of Constantinople. Pitsunda thus regained its position as the principal Christian centre of Abkhazia and maintained that dignity until the end of the Abkhazian Church’s independent existence.

From its inception in the mid-8th century, the Abkhazian Church stood at the origins of the medieval Abkhazian state. It shaped the ideology of that state, directing the wealth and power of the Abkhazian kings towards the preservation of enduring spiritual values among the people. The reign of each ruler of that era was marked by the construction and embellishment of cathedrals and churches, outstanding architectural monuments of the Caucasus and the northern and eastern Black Sea regions.

Among these were Pitsunda Cathedral, the Bzyb Church, the Lykhny Church, the Church of Simon the Canaanite, the five-aisled Mokva Cathedral, and the church at Nizhny Arkhyz. Together they constitute what may be described as a distinctive Abkhazian school of ecclesiastical architecture. In the 11th century, Abkhaz masters would participate in the construction of churches in Kiev.

Until the 17th century, these cathedrals and churches preserved numerous holy relics, including relics of universal Christian significance. Among them was one of the nails with which the Saviour was affixed to the Cross, preserved in the Bedia Church, together with a fragment of the Crown of Thorns. In the Mokva Cathedral there were kept a particle of the True Cross, the greater part of the relics of the Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen, and portions of the relics of St Nicholas of Myra, St Ambrose of Milan, and others.

During this period, the Abkhaz language was introduced into liturgical use alongside Greek. This is attested in the Moravian-Pannonian Life of St Constantine the Philosopher (who took the monastic name Cyril), the brother of St Methodius. In Venice, defending the right to celebrate divine services in national languages, St Constantine listed the peoples who were already worshipping in their own tongues. Among them he mentioned the Abazgs.

This reference implies not only oral usage but also the development of a written form of the Abkhaz language, likely employing Greek orthography.

Under certain Abkhazian kings, Christianity was spread among the Alans (Ossetians) of the North Caucasus. For this, Constantine III and George II received particular gratitude from Patriarch Nicholas Mysticus of Constantinople. Several of his letters addressed to these Abkhazian rulers have been preserved.

During this same period, the Abkhazian Church intervened in the ecclesiastical life of neighbouring Crimean peoples, the Goths-Tetraxites. Owing to the iconoclastic heresy prevailing in Constantinople, St John of Gothia was consecrated bishop for them in Pitsunda Cathedral.

Abkhazia also continued to provide refuge for those persecuted for the Orthodox faith: iconodules fleeing iconoclasm and Christians escaping Arab persecution from Armenia and Eastern Georgia. It has even been suggested that the Abkhazian Comana sheltered the honourable head of St John the Baptist from iconoclasts; its third discovery is believed to have occurred here in the mid-9th century.

Two particularly significant events in the history of the Abkhazian Church during this period deserve future commemoration in its ecclesiastical calendar.

The first was the invasion of the Arab commander Marwan ibn Muhammad in the 730s, during which the then capital of Abkhazia — Anacopia — was besieged. The defeat of the Arab forces and their hasty withdrawal were attributed to the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, who on the eve of battle revealed her miraculous icon — the Anacopia Mother of God. During the night, 35,000 Arab soldiers are said to have perished from a bloody epidemic.

It would not be an exaggeration to compare the Battle of Anacopia with the famous victory of Charles Martel over the Arabs at Poitiers in 732. Just as the battle at Poitiers halted the further advance of Arab forces into northern Europe, so too did Anacopia prevent their expansion into the Caucasus.

Those in Georgia who today unjustly accuse the Abkhaz of sympathy towards radical Islam would do well to remember this history. The walls of Anacopia then sheltered not only the Abkhaz but also Georgians led by King Archil and his brother Mir, who had fled from the devastated lands of Kartli and Egrisi. Later, in 778–780, Anacopia again received the ruler of Kartli, Nerses, with his family and subjects, as he too fled from the Arabs. Among his retinue was the martyr Abo, an Arab youth who had embraced the Christian faith, who is said to have remarked to the ruler of Abkhazia: “What joy is there in being in Abkhazia, where there is not even the danger of dying for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ?”

Sadly, the Anacopia icon of the Mother of God has been lost. Among the most venerated icons in Abkhazia were also the Pitsunda icons of the Mother of God (two are today in Tbilisi; one is preserved in the Bachkovo Monastery in Bulgaria and is among the most revered icons of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church), the icon of King Leon III of Abkhazia, and the Kach icon of the Archangels Raphael and Seraphim.

The second event was the martyrdom of St Eustathius of Apsilia. He was the first Abkhaz saint whose holiness was recognised throughout the Eastern Church. In 738, while ruler of Apsilia, he was captured by the Arab commander Suleiman ibn Isam. In 740 he suffered martyrdom in the city of Harran, where miracles and healings were later reported at his relics.

Regrettably, the majority of his compatriots today know nothing of this saint of the Abkhazian Church, in whose honour churches ought to be erected both in his native Tsebelda and throughout Abkhazia.

Dynastic Change, Ecclesiastical Transformation, and the Transfer of the Catholicosate (10th–15th Centuries)

At the end of the 10th century a dynastic change occurred on the throne of the Abkhazian Kingdom, marking the beginning of the formation of the united medieval “Kingdom of the Abkhazians and Kartvelians.” This state endured for three centuries.

During this period, the Georgian language replaced Greek and Abkhaz in liturgical usage, although evidence indicates that both Abkhaz and Greek continued to be used locally until the 15th century. Today, the K. S. Kekelidze Institute of Manuscripts in Tbilisi preserves two altar Gospels in Old Georgian dating from the 13th century, one from Pitsunda Cathedral and the other from Mokva Cathedral. The fate of another 11th-century liturgical Gospel and Psalter from Mokva, which were kept at the Martvili Monastery in the early 20th century, remains unknown.

With the participation of the Eastern Georgian Church, a gradual ethnic transformation of the episcopate took place. Increasingly, bishops of Abkhaz or Greek origin disappeared from historical records. Only one Catholicos of Abkhaz origin from this period is known by name, Catholicos Nicholas (approximately the second half of the 13th century). Chronicles mention other Abkhazian Catholicoi, though without recording their names.

The territory of the Abkhazian Church, or Catholicosate, continued, as in the previous period, to encompass all of Abkhazia and Western Georgia.

In the 11th century Anacopia came under Greek control. At that time the Anacopia church was rebuilt and consecrated in honour of the martyr Theodore Tiron.

It should also be noted that the renowned Iviron Monastery on Mount Athos, which flourished during this period, belonged to the united Abkhaz–Kartvelian medieval state. Not only Georgians but also Abkhaz participated in its life. According to certain accounts, one of its abbots was of Abkhaz origin.

The question of the ethnic identity of the medieval Christian thinker John Petritsi also remains unresolved. Some scholars regard him as Abkhaz, identifying him with the “Abazg grammarian” mentioned in the writings of the well-known 11th-century Byzantine philosopher John Italos.

In the 13th–15th centuries, Abkhazia fell within the political and economic sphere of influence of Genoa, which established a number of trading colonies along the Black Sea coast. Genoese merchants drew the attention of representatives of Catholic monastic orders to the region.

The Catholic mission in Abkhazia proved unsuccessful, though it left a noticeable imprint on the religious traditions and culture of the Abkhaz and other Caucasian peoples. For example, the widely observed Abkhaz celebration of the “Old New Year” [13/14 January, the New Year date in the Julian calendar] is of Catholic origin. Catholic missionary activity intensified again in the second half of the 16th and 17th centuries, though once more without success.

In 1390, Catholicos Arsenios was elevated to the Pitsunda throne. In Russian church historiography this date has come to be recognised as the official date of the formation of the Abkhazian Church. There are also indications that in that same year the Church of Constantinople recognised the Abkhazian Church as independent from the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Catholicos Arsenios, a native of Western Georgia, ascended to the throne of the Abkhazian Catholicoi following the military campaign of the Mingrelian ruler Vamek Dadiani against Jiketiya (Adyghe lands) and Abkhazia in 1390. Arsenios and all his successors on the Pitsunda throne were drawn from noble families of Imereti and Mingrelia.

From that time onward, Abkhaz were deprived of the possibility not only of occupying the Catholicosal throne but also of holding any episcopal see. In the second half of the second millennium, history records only one bishop of Abkhaz origin, a metropolitan of the princely house of Chachba (Shervashidze), and even he occupied a see outside Abkhazia.

In the 14th century several churches in Abkhazia were repainted with frescoes. Particularly noteworthy are the surviving frescoes of the Lykhny Church and Pitsunda Cathedral. The unique frescoes of Mokva, Bedia, the Church of Simon the Canaanite, and Dranda have largely been lost.

In the mid-15th century Constantinople fell. One year after its fall, in 1454, the Turkish fleet captured Sebastopolis (Sukhum). From this time a gradual decline of Christianity in Abkhazia began, accompanied by the spread of Islam, primarily among the nobility. The position of Islam would strengthen significantly only in the early 19th century, paradoxically, with the arrival of Christian Russia in the Caucasus.

During this same period part of the population of Abkhazia migrated to the North Caucasus. A definitive explanation for what prompted the Abazins to leave the coastal regions of Abkhazia and cross the Caucasus range has yet to be established. However, religious motives can clearly be discerned. The migration began with the arrival of Muslim Turks in Abkhazia and was linked to efforts to preserve the Christian faith.

The progenitor of the widely known North Caucasian family Iuan (Ionov) was an Orthodox cleric of the Anacopia Church of Simon the Canaanite — John Alshunba — who migrated from Abkhazia.

In the second half of the 16th century the seat of the Abkhazian Catholicoi was transferred from Pitsunda to the Gelati Monastery in Western Georgia. From that time the Catholicoi were styled “Catholicos of Abkhazia and Imereti,” and from the 17th century, “Catholicos of Imereti and Abkhazia.”

Prior to the transfer of the see, the Abkhazian Church had been led by Catholicos Joachim (between 1470–1474), Malachia I (between 1519–1533), and Eudemon I (1557–1578). During the tenure of the latter, as noted, the see was relocated to Gelati.

Several reasons have been advanced by historians to explain the transfer of the Catholicosal seat from Abkhazia to Western Georgia. In the author’s view, the principal cause lay in the fact that those natives of Western Georgia who had, with the assistance of the Mingrelian ruler, seized the Abkhazian Catholicosal throne in 1390 did not permit a representative of the Abkhaz people to ascend to it.

From this followed further consequences that contributed to the departure of the Catholicoi from Abkhazia. First, the Abkhaz people became estranged from the Church, since services were conducted in a foreign language, and clergy brought by the Catholicos from Western Georgia either did not understand, or did not wish to understand, the needs of the predominantly Abkhaz faithful. As estrangement from the Church increased, Christian foundations among the Abkhaz naturally weakened.

Second, the ongoing conflicts between the rulers of Abkhazia and Mingrelia placed the Catholicoi, who were ethnically Georgian, in an extremely precarious position, even to the point of threats against their lives. During this period the Abkhaz rulers consistently supported Christianity itself, but not Christianity as utilised through the Catholicoi for the political and economic purposes of the Mingrelian rulers.

According to the author, none of this would have occurred had the Catholicoi, whose see was located within the domains of the Abkhaz rulers, been ethnically Abkhaz.

The continued discord between Abkhazia and Mingrelia became one of the principal reasons that subsequently prevented the Abkhazian Catholicoi from returning to Pitsunda. They remained permanently in what the author metaphorically describes as an “Avignon captivity.”

Nevertheless, recognising the significance of Pitsunda as the cradle of the Abkhazian Church, the Catholicoi of the period of “Imeretian captivity” continued until the end of the 17th century to travel to Pitsunda Cathedral for the consecration of Holy Chrism.

+ Abkhazia and the Abkhazians at the Time of the Emergence of Christianity, by Archimandrite Dorofey (Dbar)

+ The Orthodox Church in Abkhazia: Insights from Byzantine Sources, by Archimandrite Dorotheos (Dbar)

+ The History of Christianity in Abkhazia during the First Millennium, by Archimandrite Dorofey (Dbar)

+ The Spread of Christianity in the Eastern Black Sea Littoral (Written and Archaeological Sources), by L. G. Khrushkova

+ Byzantine culture influences on the people of North, by Michel Kazanski

Decline, Islamisation, and the Transformation of Religious Life (16th–18th Centuries)

After Catholicos Eudemon I, the Abkhazian Church was headed by the following Catholicoi:

1. Euthymius (1578–1605)
2. Malachia II (1605–1629)
3. Gregory I (1629–1639)
4. Maximus I (1639–1657)
5. Zachariah (1656–1659)
6. Simeon (1659–1666)
7. Eudemon II (1666–1673)
8. David (1673–1696)
9. Gregory II (1696–1742)
10. Germanus (1742–1751)
11. Vissarion (1751–1769)
12. Joseph (1769–1776)
13. Maximus II (1776–1795)

The last Abkhazian Catholicos, Maximus II, of the princely Abashidze family, was compelled to leave for Russia because of political disagreements with King David of Imereti. The Catholicos inclined towards an alliance with Russia, in which he saw the salvation of the Imeretian state. King David, by contrast, sought political independence through support from Turkey.

On his way to Palestine in 1795, Catholicos Maximus II died at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. With his death, the Abkhazian Orthodox Church ceased to exist as an independent ecclesiastical institution. The locum tenentes of the Abkhazian Catholicosal throne, Metropolitan Dosifei and Metropolitan Euthymius, were likewise removed in 1819, this time by Russian authorities.

As for ecclesiastical life in Abkhazia during the 17th–18th centuries, it is known that by the beginning of the 17th century virtually all churches, particularly in the Gudauta region, had fallen into ruin. In the Abzhyua region, the names of bishops of the Dranda, Mokva and Bedia dioceses are recorded in the 17th century. Soon, however, these churches too were plundered and set ablaze by Muslim Turks.

The significance of Islamic culture in the life of many peoples cannot be denied. Nevertheless, the author maintains that under the influence of Islamic Turkey, Abkhazia experienced an unprecedented cultural decline. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, virtually no architectural monuments were created in Abkhazia that could equal the artistic significance of earlier periods.

Particular attention must be given to the Elor Church during this era. In the 17th century a remarkable event associated with St George the Great Martyr took place there, the miraculous appearance of a sacrificial bull on the feast day of St George in November. Vast numbers of people from across the Caucasus gathered at Elor on that day.

Drawing upon the testimony of Patriarch Macarius III of Antioch, who visited the site in the mid-17th century, the author compares this miracle to the descent of the Holy Fire at Jerusalem on Pascha. The Jerusalem miracle appeared at a time when Muslim Arabs threatened the destruction of Christian shrines; it inspired respect even among Muslims and preserved the holy places from desecration.

In like manner, the Elor miracle arose when Christian sanctuaries in Abkhazia were in danger of total destruction by Muslim Turks. According to the author, this miracle prevented the Turks from extinguishing the last lamp of the Christian Church in Abkhazia.

In 1732–1733, St George is said to have appeared to the Abkhaz army led by Mancha (Manuchar) Chachba, inspiring them and joining them in battle against the forces of a Turkish pasha and his ally, the Imeretian king Alexander. Two small daggers, taken by St George and found the following morning upon his icon in the church, were regarded as symbols of this victory. Until the late 19th century, these relics were preserved at Elor as living testimony to the miraculous event.

It is likely that the life of St Hypatius of Gagra also belongs to this period. A saint of the Abkhazian Church from the Zvanba family, he practised asceticism in a cave in the gorge of Mount Mamzyshkha. After his repose, he was apparently buried in the Gagra church at Abata, since his name is consistently associated with that site in numerous sources.

After the fortress in which the Church of St Hypatius was located was occupied by a Russian garrison, this saint began to be identified with St Hypatius, Bishop of Gangra. This identification is incorrect. St Hypatius of Gagra and St Hypatius of Gangra are entirely different persons, sharing only similarity of name.

In the 17th century, amid the decline of Christianity, a transformation occurred whereby Christianity evolved into the pagan religion of the Abkhaz. In other words, the author asserts that contemporary Abkhaz paganism represents a distorted form of Christianity requiring restoration.

This process unfolded as follows. From the 14th century, as previously noted, the Abkhaz people were deprived of bishops from among their own ranks. When, due to conflicts between the ruling princes of Abkhazia and Mingrelia, the Catholicoi departed from Abkhazia, the Abkhaz were effectively left without hierarchs, a situation which, the author observes, bears resemblance to modern times.

The Bishop of Sukhum, Georgian by origin and native of Tbilisi, left his flock during the war of 1992–1993 and departed for Georgia. A diocese deprived of its bishop is likewise deprived of the ability to ordain priests for its people.

In the 17th century, after the remaining Abkhaz clergy who had stayed with their people died in old age, their functions were assumed by their sons, so-called “self-appointed priests,” whom Abkhaz scholars and ethnographers of the 20th century later termed “pagan priests.”

Simultaneously, abandoned churches gradually transformed into pagan sanctuaries. Feasts of wholly Christian origin, such as the Old New Year, Nanshva, Khazhkyra, and the rain-invocation rite Atsunshva, took on pagan character.

Thus, according to the author’s interpretation, what is commonly regarded as Abkhaz paganism is in fact the result of a gradual degeneration of Christian practice under conditions of ecclesiastical isolation and political upheaval.

Abkhazia within the Russian Empire — Restoration, Mission, and the New Athos Monastery (19th Century)

In 1810 Abkhazia became part of the Russian Empire. During the first half of the 19th century, owing to the continuing Caucasian War, ecclesiastical life in Abkhazia was virtually paralysed. At that time only three churches remained active: Pitsunda, Lykhny, and Elor. By the second quarter of the century, the Pitsunda and Lykhny churches also ceased functioning.

Under Emperor Nicholas I an attempt was made to establish a diocese within Abkhazia. The episcopal see was intended to be located at the Lykhny church. Hieromonk Anthony (Dadiani), abbot of the Tsageri Monastery and brother of the wife of the Abkhaz ruler Prince Mikhail Chachba, was recommended by the latter as candidate for the Abkhaz episcopal throne. For this purpose, Hieromonk Anthony was elevated to the rank of archimandrite. However, the diocese was never opened.

In 1851 a diocese was finally established on the territory of Abkhazia. It was officially designated the “Abkhazian Diocese” and incorporated into the Georgian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Abkhazian Diocese existed until 1885.

The bishops of the Abkhazian Diocese were:

1. Gerontius (1851–1856)
2. Germanus (1856)
3. Alexander (1856–1869)
4. Gabriel (1869–1885)

In 1869 Bishop Gabriel, who headed the Imeretian see, was simultaneously entrusted with the administration of the Abkhazian Diocese. All the above-mentioned bishops were natives of Georgia. With the exception of Bishop Gabriel, they devoted little attention to the revival of Christianity in Abkhazia.

The Abkhazian bishops, lacking both a cathedral church and a diocesan administrative building, resided at the residence of Prince Mikhail Chachba, in Lykhny during the summer and in Ochamchira during the winter.

During the tenure of Bishop Gabriel a process of mass baptism of Abkhaz began, and new parishes were opened. The “Society for the Restoration of Orthodox Christianity in the Caucasus” constructed several churches in Abkhaz villages. At this time the first representatives of an indigenous Abkhaz clergy emerged.

Particular mention should be made of the rector of the Lykhny church, the hieromartyr Fr John Gegia. A native of the village of Lykhny, Fr John was one of the most prominent church figures in Abkhazia in the second half of the 19th century. He participated in the translation into Abkhaz of the first religious publication in that language, entitled A Brief Sacred History, issued in 1866. He stood at the origins of the revival of the Abkhaz liturgical language.

His life ended tragically. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, Fr John actively urged his fellow villagers and compatriots not to resettle in Turkey, warning them that they were being deceived and that a terrible fate awaited them there. His words proved prophetic.

On 5 August 1877 he was strangled inside the Lykhny church by fellow countrymen who had embraced Islam. Today his name is venerated as that of a saint of the Abkhazian Church, and it is hoped that his formal glorification will not be long delayed.

In 1875 the foundation was laid for the New Athos Monastery of St Simon the Canaanite, renowned throughout the Orthodox world. The monastery was conceived as a potential refuge for Russian monks in the event that Greek monks should seize the Russian Monastery of St Panteleimon on Mount Athos. At the same time, the Viceroy of the Caucasus and the local ecclesiastical authorities envisaged employing Athonite monks in the enlightenment of the Abkhaz people.

In 1876, alongside the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God, a monastic school for Abkhaz boys was opened at New Athos. In 1882 the monks restored the Church of Simon the Canaanite. Over the course of thirty years an immense monastery complex was erected, including a central cathedral capable of accommodating 3,000 worshippers, extensive agricultural facilities, its own hydroelectric power station, and numerous auxiliary buildings.

By the beginning of the 20th century, among the 500 brethren of the monastery were two monks of Abkhaz origin.

In 1872 a decree was issued establishing a missionary monastery at Pitsunda Cathedral. Owing to the passive activity of monks from the Trinity–St Sergius Lavra who were sent there, the monastery was soon closed. In 1885 Pitsunda Cathedral was transferred to the jurisdiction of the New Athos Monastery as a skete, and in the same year it was consecrated in honour of the Dormition of the Mother of God, although in antiquity it had always been dedicated to the Apostle Andrew the First-Called. At the beginning of the 20th century up to eighty monks resided there.

In 1885 the Abkhazian Diocese was reorganised and renamed the “Sukhum Diocese.” It incorporated part of the territory of the dissolved Caucasian Diocese. From 1885 until 1918 the Sukhum Diocese extended from the River Ingur to Anapa.

The bishops of the Sukhum Diocese were:

1. Gennady (1886–1889)
2. Alexander (1889–1891)
3. Agafodor (1891–1893)
4. Peter (1893–1895)
5. Arseny (1895–1905)
6. Seraphim (1905–1906)
7. Kirion (1906–1907)
8. Dimitry (1907–1911)
9. Andrew (1911–1913)
10. Sergius (1913–1918)

All of the above bishops, with the exception of Bishop Kirion, were Russian. They were well educated, graduates of theological academies, and many held academic degrees in theology.

Particularly beloved among the Abkhaz were Bishops Gennady (Pavlinsky) and Agafodor (Preobrazhensky). Bishop Seraphim (Chichagov), who later became a well-known hierarch, was canonised as a hieromartyr by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Church in 1997.

The most controversial of the Sukhum bishops was Bishop Kirion (Sadzagelashvili), who after the Revolution became the first Catholicos of the autocephalous Georgian Church. One year later he was killed under mysterious circumstances. During his administration of the Sukhum Diocese an intensified process of “Georgianisation” of the Abkhaz took place. Georgian priests were appointed to Abkhaz parishes, and Abkhaz faithful were required to confess through interpreters.

By 1917 the Sukhum Diocese comprised 125 parish churches: 61 Abkhaz, 36 Russian, 16 Greek, 4 Mingrelian-Georgian, and 8 mixed (Russian–Greek and Russian–Mingrelian).

The diocese included two large men’s monasteries: the New Athos Monastery of St Simon the Canaanite (founded in 1875) and the Dormition Monastery at Dranda. The latter was founded by Athonite monks in 1880. The Bishops of Sukhum served as its abbots. The monastery maintained its own printing press and parish school for Abkhaz children. It possessed two sketes in the vicinity of Dranda and metochia in Sukhum, Yekaterinodar, Novorossiysk, and Yeysk. The number of monks reached three hundred.

There were also two major women’s monasteries: the Dormition Monastery at Mokva and the Comana Monastery of St Basiliscus and St John Chrysostom. The Comana convent was founded in 1898 and numbered up to three hundred sisters. The Mokva convent was founded in 1902. Both monasteries were active in economic and educational work.

At the beginning of the 20th century a whole generation of educated Abkhaz clergy emerged: Archpriest Dimitry Maan, Priest Nikolai Ladaria, Priest Iosif Lakerbaya, Priest Illarion Kuchuberia, Priest Alexander Azhyba, Priest Nikolai Pateipa, Priest Georgy Tumanov and others.

They actively participated in the work of a translation commission. Through their efforts the following were published in the Abkhaz language: the Liturgical Gospel, the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, a Service Book, the Trebnik, a musical collection of Abkhaz liturgical chants, and other hagiographical and edifying literature.

On 6 November 1907 the first Divine Liturgy in the Abkhaz language was celebrated at the Lykhny church. Prominent Abkhaz public figures also took part. The Creed was read by Dmitry Iosifovich Gulia, later the founder of Abkhaz literature, who had likewise participated in the translation commission. On 13 November of the same year a similar service was held in Mokva Cathedral.

The above-mentioned Abkhaz clergy were also deeply engaged in educational work among the Abkhaz people, establishing parish schools in villages. At the beginning of the 20th century up to one hundred church schools were functioning in Abkhazia.

Many graduates of these schools later became prominent public, cultural, and political figures in Abkhazia. Dmitry Gulia learned literacy from the priest of the Adzyubzha church; Samson Chanba studied at the Dranda monastic school; Nestor Lakoba at the New Athos monastic school.

Revolution, Autocephaly, and Ecclesiastical Upheaval (1917–1943)

After the February Revolution of 1917, the Georgian Church proclaimed its autocephaly — that is, its independence from the Russian Church.

Two months later, in May 1917, a large Georgian delegation arrived in Abkhazia to negotiate the transfer of Abkhaz parish churches to the jurisdiction of the Georgian Church. The Abkhaz clergy and public representatives refused the proposals.

At the end of May a congress of clergy and elected lay representatives of the Abkhaz Orthodox population of the Sukhum district was convened in Sukhum. Having once again rejected the proposals of the Georgian delegation, the congress resolved to declare the Abkhazian Church autocephalous and to recognise Bishop Sergius (Petrov), Bishop of Sukhum, as the bishop of the autocephalous Abkhazian Church.

This decision was communicated by telegraph to the Most Holy Synod of the All-Russian Church.

Two months later, the Holy Synod replied to Prince Alexander Chachba that the Abkhaz ecclesiastical question would be examined by the forthcoming Local Council of the All-Russian Church, scheduled to open on 15 August 1917. Until the Council’s decision, the existing diocesan administration was to be maintained — that is, the ecclesiastical institution on the territory of Abkhazia would remain the Sukhum Diocese of the Russian Church, not an independent Abkhazian Church.

The Abkhaz accepted this proposal.

In August 1917 the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church opened. The eighteenth section of the Council was tasked with examining the organisation of the Orthodox Church in Transcaucasia, including the Abkhaz ecclesiastical question. Four representatives of the Sukhum Diocese participated, headed by Bishop Sergius of Sukhum.

Unfortunately, representatives of the Abkhaz clergy did not attend. Archpriest Dimitry Maan, who was to represent Bishop Sergius, was replaced, after the bishop’s return to Abkhazia in September 1917, by Archpriest Georgy Golubtsov for reasons that remain unclear.

Archpriest Golubtsov proposed, both at the sessions of the eighteenth section and in two personal meetings with the newly elected Patriarch Tikhon, that the Abkhaz ecclesiastical question be resolved as follows: the Sukhum Diocese should be renamed the “Abkhazian Diocese”; it should be separated from the Georgian Exarchate of the Russian Church; and it should become an independent diocese within the Russian Church, retaining its territory from the River Ingur to Anapa.

Otherwise, Fr Georgy warned, the Georgian autocephalists would open their own Tskhumo-Abkhazian Diocese on Abkhaz territory.

This proposal had been agreed upon with the Abkhaz clergy and representatives of the Abkhaz public. It received the approval of Patriarch Tikhon.

However, events unfolded in the manner most feared by Fr Georgy Golubtsov.

In the summer of 1918 Abkhazia was occupied by Georgian Mensheviks. Subsequently, the Georgian Church established its own Tskhumo-Abkhazian Diocese on the canonical territory of the Sukhum Diocese. This new diocese was headed by Bishop Ambrose (Khelaia).

From that moment, in effect, the Sukhum Diocese ceased to exist, although until the late 1930s bishops continued to be secretly consecrated for it. These bishops possessed no real authority and ministered only to a small number of parishes that referred to themselves as “Tikhonites,” recognising Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow.

After Bishop Ambrose (Khelaia), the Tskhumo-Abkhazian Diocese of the Georgian Church, which at that time was itself unrecognised, was headed by the following bishops:

1. John (1921–1925)
2. Christopher (1925–1927)
3. Ephraim (1927)
4. Melchizedek (1927–1928)
5. Paul (1928)
6. Barlaam (1929–1934)
7. Melchizedek (second tenure, 1935–1943)

All of these bishops were ethnically Georgian. They exercised little real power, since by that time Soviet authority had nearly destroyed the Orthodox Church in Abkhazia.

By 1924 all monasteries of the Sukhum Diocese had been closed, along with the majority of parishes. Almost all clergy and monastics were executed or imprisoned in labour camps.

Among the repressed clergy particular mention should be made of Fr Elizbar Achba, rector of the Sukhum Cathedral (the cathedral was blown up in 1937), a new martyr of the Abkhazian Church. Materials are currently being prepared for his canonisation.

By the end of the 1930s not a single priest of Abkhaz origin remained.

In 1943 the Russian Church, after twenty-five years, recognised the independence of the Georgian Church, and prayerful and canonical communion between them was restored.

That same year, the remaining parish churches in Abkhazia which had not previously submitted to the Georgian autocephalists and had identified themselves as “Tikhonites” were finally transferred by the Russian Church to the Georgian Church.

Thus, according to the author, the anti-canonical act of 1918 — the establishment of the Tskhumo-Abkhazian Diocese of the Georgian Church on the canonical territory of the Sukhum Diocese of the Russian Church — was, twenty-five years later, effectively legalised.

The Abkhaz people, the author notes, were not consulted regarding this final juridical transfer of their churches and monasteries to the jurisdiction of the Georgian Church.

Post-War Period, Soviet Restriction, and Late-Soviet Religious Life (1943–1992)

After the Second World War, the Tskhumo-Abkhazian Diocese was headed by the following bishops:

1. Anthony (1952–1956)
2. Leonid (1957–?)
3. Roman (?–1967)
4. Ilia (1967–1977)
5. Nikolai (1977–1983)
6. David (1983–1992)
7. Daniel (1992–1993)

All of these bishops, with the exception of Bishop Anthony, were appointed from Georgia.

Two figures became particularly well known. Bishop Ilia (Shiolashvili) later became head of the Georgian Church. Bishop David (Chkadua), subsequently elevated to metropolitan rank, was an active participant in the ecumenical movement.

Under Bishop Anthony, the Greek church in the city of Sukhum was transferred to the Tskhumo-Abkhazian Diocese. This church became the cathedral and remains so to this day.

During this period the Tskhumo-Abkhazian Diocese had no monasteries. Throughout the territory of Abkhazia only six churches were functioning: the Sukhum Cathedral, the Sukhum Cemetery Church, the Elor Church, the Lykhny Church, the Church of the Protection in Gagra, and the Church of the Protection in Gudauta. The latter two, private houses converted into churches, were opened after the Second World War.

The number of clergy did not exceed ten. The clergy were predominantly Russian. Only in the late 1980s, under Metropolitan David (Chkadua), did the number of Georgian clergy increase.

During Khrushchev’s persecutions of the Orthodox Church, the mountains of Abkhazia became a refuge for monks from various parts of the USSR. Hermits had already appeared in the Abkhaz mountains at the end of the 19th century. Small monastic communities in Tsebelda, Azanta, Amtkel, Dvurechye and Pskhu became genuine spiritual centres for Orthodox believers from across the Soviet Union.

Many of those who secretly visited these communities for spiritual guidance later became well-known hierarchs of the Russian Church, abbots of monasteries, priests, and professors of theological academies.

During the period of Perestroika, under Metropolitan David (Chkadua), several additional churches were reopened, including the Church of St John Chrysostom in Comana.

At the same time, Metropolitan David and the Georgian clergy of the Tskhumo-Abkhazian Diocese actively participated in political actions organised by Georgian nationalists and supporters of Zviad Gamsakhurdia. These actions frequently took place in the courtyard of the Sukhum Cathedral. According to the author, such behaviour alienated the Abkhaz people from the Church.

In the early 1990s the first Abkhaz priests of the modern period appeared: Fr Zakaria Shakaya (ordained in Central Asia), rector of the Church of the “Quick to Hear” Icon in Tkvarchal, and Fr Vissarion Apliaa, rector of the Church of Simon the Canaanite at New Athos.

The Georgian clergy of the Tskhumo-Abkhazian Diocese sided with those who, in 1992, brought tanks into Abkhazia and initiated the war. In August 1992 Metropolitan David (Chkadua), together with Eduard Shevardnadze, publicly greeted the capture of Sukhum by Georgian armed formations in the square before the building of the Council of Ministers of Abkhazia.

A few days after delivering a televised address in which he called upon Georgians to wage war against the Abkhaz, Metropolitan David died in Tbilisi under unclear circumstances.

After his death Archbishop Daniel (Datuashvili) was sent to Sukhum. Like his predecessor, he continued to encourage Georgian fighters in the war against the Abkhaz people.

Following the liberation of Sukhum by Abkhaz forces in September 1993, Archbishop Daniel, together with the Georgian clergy, fled to Georgia, leaving the Christian flock of Abkhazia without pastoral leadership. He continues to bear nominally the title of Bishop of the Tskhumo-Abkhazian Diocese and remains an active participant in events organised by the so-called “Government of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia in exile.” He also participates in Georgian–Russian ecclesiastical meetings as head of the Tskhumo-Abkhazian Diocese.

Holy Metropolis of Abkhazia YouTube channel

Post-War Reorganisation and Contemporary Revival (1993–2005)

After the departure of the Georgian clergy in 1993, four priests remained in Abkhazia:

• Fr Vissarion Apliaa, who had served during the war in the Gudauta church;
• Archpriest Peter (Samsonov), rector of the Lykhny church;
• Fr Pavel (Kharchenko), serving priest of the Gagra church;
• Hegumen Vitaly (Golub), serving priest of the Sukhum Cathedral.

At the end of 1993 these clergymen elected from among themselves Fr Vissarion Apliaa as rector of the Cathedral of the city of Sukhum and representative of the Tskhumo-Abkhazian Diocese in relations with the state authorities and the Russian Orthodox Church.

In 1998 the Diocesan Council of the Tskhumo-Abkhazian Diocese was established. At its first session that same year, the Statute of the Diocese was adopted, and Fr Vissarion Apliaa was elected chairman of the Diocesan Council.

In the post-war period several churches and monasteries were reopened within the territory of the Tskhumo-Abkhazian Diocese. The New Athos Monastery was reopened in 1994, and the Comana Monastery in 2001. Since 2002 the New Athos Theological School has been in operation.

The number of Abkhaz clergy has increased with the addition of young, educated hieromonks. Divine services in the Abkhaz language have been resumed.

Hieromonk Dorofey (Dbar)
Candidate of Theological Sciences
New Athos, 2005