The wide variety of peoples inhabiting Georgia has meant a correspondingly rich array of active religions. Today most of the population in Georgia practices Orthodox Christianity, primarily the Georgian Orthodox Church. Of these (83.9%), around 2% follow the Russian Orthodox Church. Around 3.9% of the population follow the Armenian Apostolic Church, almost all of which are ethnic Armenians.[1] According to the CIA factbook, Muslims make up 9.9% of the population,[2] and are mainly found in the Adjara and Kvemo Kartli regions and as a sizeable minority in Tbilisi. Roman Catholics make up around 0.8% of the population and are mainly found in the south of Georgia and a small number in Tbilisi. There is also a sizeable Jewish Community in Tbilisi served by two synagogues.
The Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church is one of the world's most ancient Christian Churches, founded in the 1st century by the Apostle Andrew the First Called. In the first half of the 4th century Christianity was adopted as the state religion. This has provided a strong sense of national identity that has helped to preserve a national Georgian identity, despite repeated periods of foreign occupation and attempted assimilation.
Georgia has a long history of religious harmony within its borders despite the historical conflicts with the surrounding nations. Different religious minorities have lived in Georgia for thousands of years and religious discrimination is virtually unknown in the country.[3] Jewish communities exist throughout the country, with major concentrations in the two largest cities, Tbilisi and Kutaisi. Azerbaijani groups have practiced Islam in Georgia for centuries, as have Ajarians and some of the Abkhazians concentrated in their respective autonomous republics. The Armenian Apostolic Church, whose doctrine differs in some ways from that of Georgian Orthodoxy, has autocephalous status.
Contents |
The country has a total area of approximately 25,900 square miles (67,100 km²), and its population is 5.5 million.
According to a 2002 census, 83.8% of the Georgian population identified themselves as Georgian Orthodox, 9.9% Muslim, 3.9% Armenian Apostolic Church, and 0.8% Roman Catholicism. Orthodox churches serving other non-Georgian ethnic groups, such as Russians and Greeks, are subordinate to the Georgian Orthodox Church. Non-Georgian Orthodox Churches generally use the language of their communicants.
In addition, there are a small number of mostly ethnic Russian believers from two dissenter Christian movements: the ultra-Orthodox Old Believers, and the Spiritual Christians (the Molokans and the Doukhobors). The majority of these groups have left the country since the mid-1980s.[4]
Under Soviet rule, the number of active churches and priests declined sharply and religious education was nearly nonexistent. Membership in the Georgian Orthodox Church has increased markedly since independence in 1991. The church maintains 4 theological seminaries, 2 academies, several schools, and 27 church dioceses; and has 700 priests, 250 monks, and 150 nuns. The Church is headed by the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Ilia II, whose see is in Tbilisi.
Several religions, including the Armenian Apostolic Church, Roman Catholicism, Judaism, and Islam, traditionally have coexisted with Georgian Orthodoxy. A large number of Armenians live in the southern Javakheti region, in which they constitute a majority of the population. Islam is prevalent among Azerbaijani and north Caucasus ethnic communities in the eastern part of the country and also is found in the regions of Ajaria and Abkhazia. About 5% of the population are nominally Muslim.
Judaism, which has been present since ancient times, is practiced in a number of communities throughout the country, especially in the largest cities, Tbilisi and Kutaisi. Approximately 8,000 Jews remain in the country, following two large waves of emigration, the first in the early 1970s and the second in the period of perestroika during the late 1980s. Before then, Jewish officials estimate, there were as many as 100,000 Jews in the country. There also are small numbers of Lutheran worshipers, mostly among descendants of German communities that first settled in the country several hundred years ago. A small number of Kurdish Yezidis have lived in the country for centuries.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Protestant denominations have become more prominent. They include Baptists (composed of Russian, Georgian, Armenian, Ossetian, and Kurdish groups); Seventh-day Adventists; Pentecostals (both Georgian and Russian); the New Apostolic Church; and the Assemblies of God.There also are a few Bahá'ís, Hare Krishnas and Jehovah's Witnesses (local representatives state that the group has been in the country since 1953 and has about 15,000 adherents). There are no available membership numbers for these groups but, combined, their membership most likely totals fewer than 100,000 persons.
Christianity, first preached by the Apostles Simon and Andrew in the 1st century, became the state religion of Kartli (Iberia) in 327, making Georgia the second oldest Christian country after Armenia, although most of the population was already christian.[5][6][7][8] The final conversion of Georgia to Christianity in 327 is credited to St. Nino of Cappadocia. She was the only daughter of pious and noble parents, the Roman general Zabulon, a relative of the great martyr St. George, and Susanna, sister of the Patriarch of Jerusalem.[9] The Georgian Orthodox Church, originally part of the Church of Antioch, gained its autocephaly in the 5th century during the reign of Vakhtang Gorgasali, and the Bible was also translated into Georgian in the 5th century. Notably, the oldest example of Georgian writing is an asomtavruli inscription in a church in Bethlehem from AD 430. The Georgians' new faith, which replaced pagan beliefs and Zoroastrianism , was to place them permanently on the front line of conflict between the Islamic and Christian worlds. As was true elsewhere, the Christian church in Georgia was crucial to the development of a written language, and most of the earliest written works were religious texts. After Georgia was annexed by the Russian Empire, the Russian Orthodox Church took over the Georgian church in 1811. The colorful frescoes and wall paintings typical of Georgian cathedrals were whitewashed by the Russian occupiers.
The Georgian church regained its autonomy only when Russian rule ended in 1918. Neither the Georgian Menshevik government nor the Bolshevik regime that followed considered revitalization of the Georgian church an important goal, however. Soviet rule brought severe purges of the Georgian church hierarchy and constant repression of Orthodox worship. As elsewhere in the Soviet Union, many churches were destroyed or converted into secular buildings. This history of repression encouraged the incorporation of religious identity into the strong nationalist movement in 20th century Georgia and the quest of Georgians for religious expression outside the official, governmentcontrolled church. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, opposition leaders, especially Zviad Gamsakhurdia, criticized corruption in the church hierarchy. When Ilia II became the patriarch (catholicos) of the Georgian Orthodox Church in the late 1970s, he brought order and a new morality to church affairs, and Georgian Orthodoxy experienced a revival. In 1988 Moscow permitted the patriarch to begin consecrating and reopening closed churches, and a large-scale restoration process began.
Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, known as the burial place of Christ's mantle, which was brought to Mtskheta after the crucifixion by Elias, a Georgian Jew from Iberia, is the first Georgian church.[10] It is notable that Georgia falls under the patronage of the Virgin Mary—according to Saint Stefan, when the Apostles cast lots to determine in which country God desired each of them to preach the Gospel, the destiny of the mother of God was to preach in Iberia.[11]
Jacques de Vitry and Sir John Maundeville stated that Georgians are called Georgian because they especially revere and venerate St. George, and that when they go on pilgrimage to the Lord's Sepulchre, they march into the Holy City with banners displayed, and without paying tribute to anyone.[12] However the accepted explanation among Georgians themselves is that the country was so named in Greek, from a root meaning "farmland".
Islam in Georgia was introduced in 645 AD. when an army sent by the Second Caliph of Islam, Umar, conquered Eastern Georgia and established Muslim rule in Tbilisi. During this period, Tbilisi (al-Tefelis) grew into a center of trade between the Islamic world and northern Europe. Islam's history continued in Georgia throughout the late 14th and early 15th centuries with Timur's invasions of Georgia and during the 18th and 19th centuries, the Safavids and Ottomans commanded influence in the region. In 1703, Vakhtang VI became the ruler of the kingdom of Kartli and he embraced Islam. Other notable Georgian Muslims from that era include David XI of Kartli, Jesse of Kakheti[13] and Simon II of Kartli.
Muslims constitute 9.9%,[14] or 463,062 of the Georgian population and mainly consist of ethnic Azerbaijani Shia Muslims concentrated along the border with Armenia. The Georgian ethnic Muslims are Sunni Hanafi and are found in relatively small numbers in the rural parts of Adjara, a Georgian region bordering Turkey.
There are two major Muslim groups in Georgia. The Georgian ethnic Muslims are Sunni Hanafi and are concentrated in Autonomous Republic of Adjara of Georgia bordering Turkey. The ethnic Azerbaijani Muslims are predominantly Shia Ithna Ashariyah and are concentrated along the border with Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Meskhetian Turks are Sunni Hanafi Muslims. Meskhetian Turks are the former Turkish inhabitants of Meskheti region of Georgia, along the border with Turkey. They were deported to Central Asia during November 15–25, 1944 by Joseph Stalin and settled within Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Of the 120,000 forcibly deported in cattle-trucks a total of 10,000 perished.[15] Today they are dispersed over a number of other countries of the former Soviet Union. There are 500,000 to 700,000 Meskhetian Turks in exile in Azerbaijan and Central Asia.[16][17]
The Jews have a history in Georgia extending back over 2011 years. Today there is a small Jewish community in the country (3541 according to the 2002 census[18]), although the Jewish population was over 100,000 as recently as the 1970s. Especially following the collapse of the Soviet Union, all of the country's Jews have left, mainly to Israel. The majority of Georgia's remaining Jews today live in Tbilisi and are served by its two synagogues. Because the size of the community is now so small, and for economic reasons, the two congregations are now housed on two storeys of one of the formerly separate synagogues.
The Bahá'í Faith in Georgia begins with its arrival in the region in 1850 through its association with the precursor religion the Bábí Faith during the lifetime of Bahá'u'lláh.[19] During the period of Soviet policy of religious oppression, the Bahá'ís in the Soviet Republics lost contact with the Bahá'ís elsewhere.[20] However in 1963 an individual was identified[21] in Tibilisi.[22] Following Perestroika the first Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly of Georgia formed in 1991[23] and Georgian Bahá'ís elected their first National Spiritual Assembly in 1995.[24] The religion is noted as growing in Georgia.[19]
The Georgian Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the Government generally respects this right in practice. Citizens generally do not interfere with traditional religious groups; however, there have been reports of violence and discrimination against nontraditional religious groups.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies.