This is the most widespread Monophysite church. Of about 4 million members worldwide, some 3.5 million live in Armenia, 440,000 in Georgia, and the rest in other countries of the former Soviet Union, as well as the United States, Turkey, and Iran. The heartland of the church is Armenia, where the catholicos resides in the ancient monastery of Echmiadzin, Armenia.

The broad dispersion of this much-tested church has taken place in the course of a lengthy history. Even before Constantine (emperor 306–37), ancient Armenia between the Caucasus and Mesopotamia…