by Mahir Mahila-zadeh
Created: 23 October 2025
Bishops' names and the locations of the Albanian Church's monasteries and churches.
Abas*, bishop of Partaw, the See of the Albanian** Chalcedonian*** Church (Pahlavi: Partaw; Arabic: Bardh'a, now Barda, Azerbaijan);
Moses, bishop of Balalat;
Grigor, bishop of Kapalak (now Qabala, Azerbaijan);
Hromak, bishop of Amaras (now Khojavend, Azerbaijan);
bishop of Arc'ax (Pahlavi: Arc'ax; now Karabakh, Azerbaijan);
bishop of Uti/k (now Šamkir/ Šamkūr and around Ganja city, Azerbaijan);
bishop, Kambisena (now in Georgia);
bishop of Čor (Pahlavi: Darband; now Derbent, Russia);
Simeon bishop Mets Irank;
bishop Vostan Imartspan;
bishop of Tsri/ Tri (around Ganja city, Azerbaijan);
bishop Siwnik (Pahlavi: Sisakan, now Syunik, Armenia);
Timothy, bishop of Balasakan/ Paytakaran (Pahlavi: Balāsagān; now Beylagan. Azerbaijan);
Habakkuk, bishop of Šak‘ē (Pahlavi: Šakki; now Sheki, Azerbaijan);
Yohanik, bishop of Gardman (Phalavi: Šakašēn; Qazakh/ Kedabek/ Gadabay, near the old fortress of Getabakk, Azerbaijan);
Lewond, bishop of Meckolmank/ Mec Kol-mank.
*At the time, bishop Abas (in office 552-596) was Catholicos of the Albanian Apostolic Church. He successfully gained autocephaly for the Albanian Church.
** Also called Church of Arran (Pahlavi: Arrān).
*** Followed the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD) on the dyophysite nature of Christ.
Sources:
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.
