by Mahir Khalifa-zadeh
Created: 23 October 2025
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| Source: https://history.az/images/3/16983.jpg
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Bishops of the Albanian Chalcedonian Church's monasteries/ churches
Abas,* bishop of Partaw,** the See of the Albanian*** Chalcedonian**** Church (Pahlavi: Partaw; now Barda, Azerbaijan);
Moses, bishop of Balalat;
Grigor, bishop of Kapalak (now Qabala, Azerbaijan);
Hromak, bishop of Amaras (now Amaras town in Khojavend, Azerbaijan);
bishop of Arc'ax (from Parthian: Aršak/ Arsak?, possibly originating from the name of the ruling Parthian Arsacid/ Aršakid dynasty of Albania; now Karabakh, Azerbaijan);
bishop of Uti/k (old: Šamkūr, now Shamkir and around Ganja city, Azerbaijan);
bishop, Kambisena (now in Georgia);
bishop of Čor/ Čol (Pahlavi: Čōl, now Torpakh-Kala, near Derbent, Russia);
Simeon, bishop of Mets Irank;
bishop of Vostan Imartspan (Pahlavi: v-ostan i marz-ban? "place of marzban [governor]", now possibly Derbent, Russia);
bishop of the city-fortress Tsri/ Tri (around Ganja city, Azerbaijan);
bishop of Yekhnibekh;
bishop of Siwnik (Pahlavi: Sisakān, now Syunik, Armenia);
Timothy, bishop of Paytakaran/ Balasakan/(Parthian: karan [land]/ Payt' karan [land of Payt (tribe or name)], Pahlavi: Balāsagān; now part of Iran; and Lankaran, Salyan and city of Beylagan, Azerbaijan);
Habakkuk, bishop of Šak‘ē (Pahlavi: Šakki; now Sheki, Azerbaijan);
Yohanik, later Nerses, bishops of Gardman (Phalavi: Šakašēn; now near the Girdiman river and the old fortress of Getabakk, nowadays Qazakh/ Kedabek/ Gedabay, Azerbaijan);
Lewond and later Israel, bishop of Meckolmank/ Mets Kol-mank. Bishop Israel held negotiations with the Huns in 682.
Caucasian Albanian Church's Chalcedonian monasteries in Jerusalem, around 638 CE
- Monastery of Pant, dedicated to St. John
the Baptist, (possibly named after bishop Pand, an early head of the Albanian
Church), established around the 4th century;
- Monastery of St. Theotokos (St. Mary) of Arc’ax;
- Monastery of Mrouv;
- Monastery of St. Gregory of Amaras, dedicated to Gregory the Illuminator;
- Monastery of St. Theotokos (St. Mary) of Partaw;
- Monastery named after the Holy Cathedral [S. Kat'olike Ekelec'i] in the city of Vagharshapat (Old Persian: Valashāpāt/ Balashāpāt, named after Valash/ Balash, a Parthian ruler of Armin, Latin: Armenia)******;
- 4 other monasteries occupied by the Muslims.
Notices:
*At the time, bishop Abas (in office 552-596) was Catholicos of the Albanian Apostolic Church. He successfully gained autocephaly for the Albanian Church.
** The original name was a "great city" of Pērōz-Kavāt/ Pērōzāpāt, i.e., “Prosperous Peroz” or "the city of Pērōz". It was renamed to Partaw (Old Persian: Parθaυa, Parthian: Parθaυ, "Parthia", Middle Persian: Pahlav, now Barda from Arabic: برذعة, Bardhaʿa, Azerbaijan), possibly between 484-488 under the reign of Arrānshāh Vachaghan [III] the Pious, holding the status of the capital city of Arrān (Latin: Albania).
***Also called Church of Arran (Pahlavi: Arrān).
**** Followed the decision of the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD) on the dyophysite nature of Christ.
***** The total number of the Albanian Church's monasteries in the Holy Land was 10.
****** This possibly indicates that the Cathedral of the Armenian Church in Ejmiadzin (Vagharshapat) was originally the Albanian Chalcedonian Church, where the Chalcedonian Dyophysite/ Orthodox Byzantine Emperor Heraclius was stationed in 624 AD. It is difficult to imagine that dyophysite Heraclius was in the miaphysite/ monophysite anti-Chalcedonian church. It is well known that the Russian Tsar (1836) transferred all the survived Caucasian Albanian churches under the jurisdiction of the miaphysite Armenian Church.
Sources:
Baumer Christoph, "History of the Caucasus, At the Crossroads of Empires", Volume 1. London: I.B. Tauris, 2021. 392. ISBN: 978-1-78831-007-9.
Whirby Michael, “The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus”, Liverpool University Press, 2000, 454.
Kałankatuac̣i Moses, (Movsēs Daskhurantsʻi), “The History of the Caucasian Albanians”, Trans: Dowsett Ch., London, 1961, 252.
Terian Abraham, “Monastic Turmoil in Sixth-Century Jerusalem and the South Caucasus: The Letter of Patriarch John IV to Catholicos Abas of the Caucasian Albanians,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 74, 2020, 9-39.
Archimandrite Alexy (Nikonorov), "Dioceses of the Albanian church by the sixth century", available at: https://ethnoglobus.az/343-dioceses-of-the-albanian-church-by-the-sixth-century.html
Chaumont
Michael, “ALBANIA”, Encyclopedia Iranica, I/8, pp. 806-810; an updated version is
available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/albania-iranian-aran-arm
(accessed on 17 May 2014).
Garsonian Nina, The Marzpanate (428-652), Chapter 5, In: “The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times. I. The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century”, Ed: Richard G. Hovannisian R., New York, St Martin Press, 1997, 95-115.
