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

This book is the doctoral dissertation of Archimandrite Dorofey (Dbar), written at the Moscow Theological Academy from 1997 to 2001 under the guidance of Professor Alexei Ivanovich Sidorov, a renowned Russian patrologist. The dissertation became the first scholarly monograph dedicated to the study of the history of Christianity in Abkhazia during the first millennium.

In the first two chapters, the author examines the history of Abkhazia and the Abkhazians at the time of the emergence of Christianity and the pre-Christian religious beliefs of the Abkhazians. The following six chapters trace the spread of Christianity into Abkhazia and the development of the Abkhazian ecclesiastical institution, from the earliest Pitsunda Episcopate to the autocephalous Abkhazian Church. The work offers a new interpretation of significant accounts by Byzantine authors regarding the history of Christianity in Abkhazia. A separate chapter is devoted to the place of death of St. John Chrysostom. The final chapter, which is the most controversial, explores the formation of the independent Abkhazian Church, presenting a new version and dating of this event.

The dissertation cites up to 280 works (sources, books, and articles). Some important fragments of ancient sources are provided not only in Russian translation but also in the original languages (Ancient Greek and Latin). The author has taken into account all available ecclesiastical-archaeological material on Abkhazia to date.

In 2005, the Abkhazian Eparchy's publishing house Stratophil together with the New Athos Theological School published the first edition of the aforementioned dissertation.

The second edition of the dissertation includes a complete list of publications by Archimandrite Dorofey in the appendix. Additionally, the appendix contains a brief description of the dissertation in Greek.

The full book in PDF can be downloaded by clicking here (11.3 MB)