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.
ABRAHAM TERIAN is Professor of Armenian Patristics and Academic Dean at St Nersess Armenian Seminary in New Rochelle, New York. Before coming to St Nersess in 1997, Terian was Professor of Intertestamental and Early Christian Literatures for some twenty years at Andrews University, and for several years a recurring Visiting Professor of Armenian Studies at the University of Chicago.
