Eastern Christianity

Saint Thomas Syrian Christians described in the Códice Casanatense

Saint Thomas Christians

Saint Thomas Christians The Saint Thomas Christians, also called Syrian Christians of India, Marthoma Suriyani Nasrani, Malankara Nasrani, or Nasrani Mappila, are an ethno-religious community of Indian Christians in the state of Kerala (Malabar region), who, for the most part, employ the Eastern and Western liturgical rites of Syriac Christianity. They trace their origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. The Saint Thomas...

The Church of Hagia Irene, was the cathedral church of the Patriarchate before Hagia Sophia was completed in 360

Ecumenical Patriarchate Of Constantinople

Ecumenical Patriarchate Of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (Oikoumenikón Patriarkhíon Konstantinoupóleos, Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constantinopolitanus; Rum Ortodoks Patrikhanesi, İstanbul Ekümenik Patrikhanesi, “Roman Orthodox Patriarchate, Ecumenical Patriarchate”) is one of the fifteen to seventeen autocephalous churches (or “jurisdictions”) that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is headed by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, currently Bartholomew, Archbishop...

Monastery of Saint Anthony, Eastern Desert, Egypt

Eastern Christian Monasticism

Eastern Christian Monasticism Eastern Christian Monasticism is the life followed by monks and nuns of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Church of the East and Eastern Catholicism. Eastern monasticism is founded on the Rule of St Basil and is sometimes thus referred to as Basilian. History Christian monasticism began in the Eastern Mediterranean in Syria, Palestine and Egypt where the Desert...

Enda Mariam Cathedral in Asmara, the seat of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church

Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church

Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church (Tigrinya: ቤተ ክርስትያን ተዋህዶ ኤርትራ) is one of the Oriental Orthodox Churches with its headquarters in Asmara, Eritrea. Its autocephaly was recognised by Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, after Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1993. History See also: Timeline of Orthodox Tewahedo Origins Tewahedo (Ge’ez: ተዋሕዶ täwaḥədo) is a...

Holy Trinity Cathedral, Addis Ababa

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን, Yäityop’ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan) is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in sub-Saharan Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates back centuries, and has a current membership of about...

A map of the jurisdictions of the Chaldean Catholic Church

Chaldean Catholic Church

Chaldean Catholic Church The Chaldean Catholic Church (ʿīdtha kaldetha qāthuliqetha; الكنيسة الكلدانية al-Kanīsa al-kaldāniyya; Ecclesia Chaldaeorum Catholica, ‘Catholic Church of the Chaldeans’) is an Eastern Catholic particular church (sui juris) in full communion with the Holy See and the rest of the Catholic Church and is headed by the Chaldean Patriarchate. Employing in its liturgy the East Syriac Rite in the Syriac language, it is part of Syriac...

The wedding of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

Byzantine Rite

Byzantine Rite The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, identifies the wide range of cultural, liturgical, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Orthodox Church of Constantinople. The canonical hours are very long and complicated, lasting about eight hours (longer during Great Lent) but are abridged outside of large monasteries. An iconostasis,...

Maramon Mar Thoma Church (2005)

Eastern Protestant Christianity

Eastern Protestant Christianity The term Eastern Protestant Christianity (or Eastern Reformed Christianity), as well as Oriental Protestant Christianity, encompasses a range of heterogeneous Protestant Christian denominations that developed outside of the Occident, from the latter half of the nineteenth century and yet keeps elements of Eastern Christianity, to varying degrees....

Bled Slovenia Europe Church Body Of Water Travel

Byzantine Rite Lutheranism

Byzantine Rite Lutheranism Byzantine Rite Lutheranism (also known as Byzantine Lutheranism or Eastern Lutheranism) refers to Lutheran Churches, such as those of Ukraine and Slovenia, that use a form of the Byzantine Rite as their liturgy. It is unique in that it is based on the Eastern Christian rite used...

Nestorian priests in a procession on Palm Sunday, in a seventh- or eighth-century wall painting from a Nestorian church in Qocho, China

Nestorianism

Nestorianism Nestorianism is a polysemic term, used in Christian theology and Church history as a designation for several mutually related but doctrinarily distinctive sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian Nestorius (d. c. 450) who promoted specific doctrines in the fields of Christology and Mariology. The second meaning of the term is much...

Moscow Saint Basil's Cathedral

True Orthodoxy

True Orthodoxy True Orthodoxy, or Genuine Orthodoxy (“Church of True Orthodox Christians”; “True Orthodox Church”), often pejoratively referred to as “Zealotry“, is a movement within Eastern Orthodox Christianity that has been separated from the mainstream Eastern Orthodox Church over issues of ecumenism and calendar reform since the 1920s. Population Those...

Church Spilled Blood Church Of The Redeemer

History Of Eastern Christianity

History Of Eastern Christianity This article covers the history of Eastern Christianity. Christianity has been, historically a Middle Eastern religion with its origin in Judaism. Eastern Christianity refers collectively to the Christian traditions and churches which developed in the Middle East, Egypt, Asia Minor, the Far East, Balkans, Eastern Europe, Northeastern Africa and southern India over several centuries...

Mongol tribes that adopted Syriac Christianity ca. 600 – 1400

Syriac Christianity

Syriac Christianity Syriac Christianity (Mšiḥāyuṯā Suryāyṯā; مسيحية سريانية‎, masīḥiyyat suryāniyya) represents a distinctive branch of Eastern Christianity, whose formative theological writings and traditional liturgies are expressed in Classical Syriac language, a variation of Aramaic language. In a wider sense, the term can also refer to Aramaic Christianity in general, thus encompassing all...

The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453

Christian Influences In Islam

Christian Influences In Islam Christian influences in Islam could be traced back to Eastern Christianity, which surrounded the origins of Islam. Islam, emerging in the context of the Middle East that was largely Christian, was first seen as a Christological heresy known as the “heresy of the Ishmaelites”, described as such in Concerning...

Ruins of the monastery of Mar Eliya (Iraq) before 2014, when it was destroyed by ISIS

Church Of The East

Church Of the East The Church of the East, also called the Persian Church or Nestorian Church, was a Christian church of the East Syriac rite established c. 410. It was one of three major branches of Eastern Christianity that arose from the Christological controversies of the 5th and 6th centuries, alongside the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches....

A cross marked in ash on a worshipper's forehead

Christian Denomination

Christian Denomination A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity, identified by traits such as a name, organization, leadership and doctrine. The Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, and Oriental Orthodox Churches, meaning the large majority, all self-describe as churches, whereas many Protestant denominations self-describe as congregations or fellowships....

An Eastern Catholic bishop of the Syro-Malabar Church holding the Mar Thoma Cross which symbolizes the heritage and identity of the Saint Thomas Christians of India

Eastern Christianity

Eastern Christianity Eastern Christianity comprises church families that developed outside the Occident, with major bodies including the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox churches, the Eastern Catholic churches (that are in communion with Rome but still maintain Eastern liturgies), and the denominations descended from the Church of the East. Eastern...

Catholic St.Martin's cathedral in Spišské Podhradie (Slovakia). Behind the cathedral there is the gothic Spiš Castle.

Western Christianity

Western Christianity Western Christianity is one of two sub-divisions of Christianity (Eastern Christianity being the other), composed of the Latin Church and Protestantism, together with their offshoots such as Independent Catholicism and Restorationism. The large majority of the world’s 2.3 billion Christians are Western Christians (about 2 billion – 1.2...

Mother of God, mosaic icon, Hagia Sophia (12th century)

Theotokos

What Is Theotokos? Theotokos (Θεοτόκος) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations, Dei Genetrix or Deipara (approximately “parent (fem.) of God”), are “Mother of God” or “God-bearer”.[a][b] The title has been in use since the 3rd century, in the Syriac tradition (Yoldath Aloho) in the Liturgy...