Garabed Amadouni : The Divine Liturgy or Canon of the Ministration of theChurch According to the Armenian RiteI. Historical Survey1. Origin of the Armenian LiturgyAs the Gospel of Our Lord penetrated in Armenia on two ways, from the South through Syria and from theWest through Cappadocia, there were also two streams of liturgical tradition which found their way intoArmenia: the Syriac and the Cappadocian in their respective languages, in Syriac and in Greek.In the beginning of the fourth century, when the official conversion of Armenia to the Christian faith tookplace and St. Gregory the Illuminator established the ecclesiastical hierarchy, it was rather the Cappadociantradition which enjoyed preference by the young Armenian Church.St. Gregory the Illuminator has received himself his education at Caesarea in Cappadocia, He brought toArmenia missionaries of the Church of Cappadocia with which Armenia was hierarchically linkedthroughout the fourth century.This is why the ancient liturgy of St. Basil the Great which was in use since the fourth century, has beenmaintained, more or less in its primitive purity, until the end of the fifth century. Two anaphoras which havecome down to us and are ascribed to St. Gregory the Illuminator and to St. Sahak (5th cent.), are nothing elsethan the pre-Byzantine anaphora of St. Basil.In the early 5th century, the Armenian alphabet was invented. The Holy Scripture and the writings of theChurch Fathers were translated into Armenian, and the Armenian language became liturgical replacing theGreek as well as the Syriac languages. The authors of this movement of Armenism, the Vardapet St. MesropMashtots as well as the Catholicos St. Sahak and their disciples, among whom the most influent in thedevelopment of the liturgy were Ghiut and John Mandakuni, Armenian Catholicoi of the fifth century. Theytook up the venture to armenize the already existing liturgies, the Divine Office and the Euchologion. So theArmenian liturgy is the result of a ...