The calendar year 2025 is coming to its end. The year marked the 1700th anniversary of the ecumenical council held in Nicaea, in 325. Every year, during the later part of the year, the Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church forwards a booklet, to us as well. The 2025 booklet was devoted to the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. I reproduced prelate Archbishop Anoushavan Tanielian’s message about the Council of Nicaea,, and added a few personal notes. Vaհe H Apelian.
“The Universal Church founded by Christ emerged from three centuries in 313, thanks to Emperor Constantine’s edict of tolerance. Soon after gaining freedom, however, it faced an internal division because of heretical Egyptian presbyter Arius. He refused to believe in the divine nature of Jesus Christ, and rather he confessed him as a created being.
Upon the invitation of Emperor Constantine, 318 patriarchs, theologians, clergymen, and deacons, including Armenian Catholicos Aristakes, took part in the First Ecumenical Council in 325, in the city of Nicaea. They condemned Arianism and formulated the Confession of Faith, which later was expanded, particularly emphasizing that Christ, the Only Begotten Son, is consubstantial with God the Father; in other word He is of the same nature.
Sectarian movements in all their variants have a common characteristic, they constrict the infinite and divine Deep Mystery to the limits of the human mind. This temptation still exists today, as it did yesterday, and as it will tomorrow.
This is why the holy Council of Nicaea, even though it has 1700 years of history, still serves as a guide to the true faith for the believers of the present and the future. With this goal in mind, the Universal Church, especially during the Divine Liturgy, reaffirms the Holy Trinity, the spiritual unity of the Church, the Body of Christ, and the truth of eternal life, by singing or reciting the Nicaean Creed.
May the 1700th anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea affords the opportunity to every believer to renew and strengthen the true faith, and stay away from the tenets of all sorts of evil movements. Archbishop Anoushavan.”
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Taking the following into account, may give us a broader appreciation of the Armenians accepting Christianity as their state religion and participating in the Council of Nicaea.
The Armenians accepted Christianity in 301 AD during the reign of king Drtad III, a descendent of King Drtad I, who was crowned king of Armenia in 67 AD by the Roman Emperor Nero, who persecuted Christians and had apostle Paul killed. The language and the culture of the Armenian Arshagouni dynastic court may very well have been Latin. Bear in mind the Temple of Garni in Armenia.
Gregory the Illuminator was of royal blood, and was educated in Caesarea, Cappadocia (modern-day Turkey), where he was raised as a Christian, having been taught in Greek. The formal language of the dynastic Armenian church he founded in 301 may very well have been Greek, as was the anguage at the Council of Nicaea.
According to Armenian historical accounts, Catholicos Aristakes, son of Gregory the Illuminator, who participated in the council of Nicaea, was murdered.
Saint Mesrob Mashdots discovered the Armenian alphabet 80 years after the Council of Nicaea, in 405 AD.
Arshagouni dynasty ended in 428 AD, having ruled Armenia for 400 years as, arguably, Armenia’s greatest kingly dynasty.
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The Nicaean Creed as recited in the Armenian Apostolic Church:
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