MACARIUS OF JERUSALEM: Letter to the Armenians, AD 335

by Abraham Terian

In his Letter to the Armenians, Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, draws on local tradition to respond to queries by the nascent Armenian Church regarding baptism and the Eucharist. He addresses his letter to Vrt'anes, elder son and second successor to Gregory the Illuminator as head of the Armenian Church, and reveals much about the nature of pre-Nicene Armenian Christianity and its affinities with East Syrian baptismal and eucharistic traditions thought to stand in need of reform. Terian's study of Macarius Letter to the Armenians establishes the date of this earliest document bearing on the history of the Armenian Church, and highlights the document s place in the baptismal and eucharistic liturgy of Jerusalem prior to Cyril s Catechetical Lectures and in the travel diary of the nun Egeria later in the fourth century.

AVANT - Treasures of the Armenian Christian Tradition #4