Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Армянская апостольская церковь" in Russian language version.
According to tradition, Armenia was evangelized by the apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus. Armenia became the first country to adopt Christianity about 300 ce, when St. Gregory the Illuminator converted the Arsacid king Tiridates III. The new Armenian church soon struck a course independent of the founding church at Caesarea Cappadociae (now Kayseri, Turkey), though it developed in close relationship with the Syrians, who provided it with scriptures and liturgy and much of its basic institutional terminology. The Armenian church’s dependence on the Syriac alphabet ended in the 5th century, when Mesrop Mashtots invented an Armenian alphabet and undertook numerous translations of the scriptures into Armenian.
The chronology of Armenia’s conversion presents a problem. The event used to be dated about 300, but more recent scholars (notably P. Ananian "La data e le circostanze della consecrazione di S. Gregorio Illuminatore, « Le Muséon 84, 1961, pp. 43-73, 317-60) tend to change the date to 314/315—a surmise which seems probable but cannot be proved.
According to tradition, Armenia was evangelized by the apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus. Armenia became the first country to adopt Christianity about 300 ce, when St. Gregory the Illuminator converted the Arsacid king Tiridates III. The new Armenian church soon struck a course independent of the founding church at Caesarea Cappadociae (now Kayseri, Turkey), though it developed in close relationship with the Syrians, who provided it with scriptures and liturgy and much of its basic institutional terminology. The Armenian church’s dependence on the Syriac alphabet ended in the 5th century, when Mesrop Mashtots invented an Armenian alphabet and undertook numerous translations of the scriptures into Armenian.
The chronology of Armenia’s conversion presents a problem. The event used to be dated about 300, but more recent scholars (notably P. Ananian "La data e le circostanze della consecrazione di S. Gregorio Illuminatore, « Le Muséon 84, 1961, pp. 43-73, 317-60) tend to change the date to 314/315—a surmise which seems probable but cannot be proved.
