The Georgian Catholic Church refers to the church of Georgian Catholics reunited to Rome and following the Byzantine Rite. There have been Georgian Catholics of the Byzantine Rite since at least 1860. Georgian Catholics of the Latin Rite have been known to exist since 1240. The monastery Fery-Quoa in Constantinople was a Georgian Byzantine-rite foundation. It still exists and is today in private ownership.

Two religious congregations of the Immaculate Conception were founded in 1861 in Constantinople by Father Peter Karishiaranti (Pétre Kharistshirashvili) to work among the Catholics of Georgia of both Byzantine and Latin rites. They were, similar in their mission to the Mechitarists among the Armenian Catholic community.

In 1917 when Georgia cut off ecclesiastical ties from the Moscow Patriarchate, some Georgians switched their affiliation to the already existing Byzantine Rite Georgian Catholic Church. In 1918, a mission was organized by Bishop Shio Batmalashvili to organize the Byzantine Catholic Church in Georgia. According to estimates they numbered around 10,000 in 1920, whereas there were 40,000 Latin Rite Catholics. The Georgian Catholics of Byzantine Rite ceased to exist in Georgia during Soviet times, as their hierarchy was liquidated by the Soviet regime. The remnants of the Catholic community are members of the Latin Rite, currently numbering altogether around 35,000. The Georgian Rite is currently recognized as an ecclesial grouping, but not as a Church by the Vatican, which refined its definition of Eastern Catholic Churches at the Second Vatican Council and later with the revised Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.

Historically, the Catholics in Georgia are mainly of the Latin Rite, although Catholics of other traditions are also found there. Christianity in Georgia began with the evangelization of St. Nino in the fourth century. Georgian Christianity gradually developed in the Byzantine Orthodox tradition, although contact with Rome did occur. The Great Schism did not immediately end contacts between Georgia and Rome, although the break was recognized by the mid-thirteenth century. Around this time, Catholic missionaries became active in Georgia.

The first Latin-Rite bishopric was established in 1329 at Tbilisi, but this was allowed to lapse after the appointment of the fourteenth and last of its line of bishops in 1507, owing to a lack of support among Georgians. In 1626, the Theatine and Capuchin orders established missions in Georgia. In the following centuries a community of Latin Catholics began to form, members of this community commonly being referred to as "French", which was the dominant nationality of the missionaries. Both orders were expelled by the Russian government in 1845.

An agreement between Pope Pius IX and Tsar Nicholas I in 1848 permitted the establishment of the Latin diocese of Tiraspol. This was based in Russia, but all Transcaucasian Catholics of Transcaucasia, including the Georgians, were aggregated to it. The Russian part of that diocese is now called Saint Clement in Saratov. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, some Georgian Catholics wanted to use the Byzantine rite traditional in Georgia, but were thwarted by the outlawing of Byzantine "Uniate" groups. Accordingly, some of them, clergy as well as laity, adopted the Armenian rite. There existed at that time the Armenian Catholic diocese of Artvin, which had been set up in Russian Transcaucasia in 1850. It is now a merely titular see, listed as such in the Annuario Pontificio. Only after the granting of religious freedom in Russia in 1905 did some Georgian Catholics resume the Byzantine rite, without reaching the stage of having a separate diocese established for them.

Earlier, Father Peter Karishiaranti (Pétre Kharistshirashvili) founded in 1861 two religious congregations of the Immaculate Conception, one for men, the other for women. These served Georgian Catholics living in Constantinople. These congregations are now extinct, although some of their members were still alive in the late 1950s. The building that housed the male congregation, Fery-Quoa, still stands in Istanbul. They were under the authority of the local Catholic bishop in Constantinople. A single parish, Notre Dame de Lordes, in Istanbul serves the Georgian community there, but it is currently without a Georgian priest.

At the outbreak of the First World War, Georgian Catholics were some 50,000. About 40,000 of these were of Latin rite, the others of eastern (mainly Armenian) rite. Juridically, they depended on the Latin diocese of Tiraspol, which had its headquarters at Saratov on the Volga.

In the brief period of Georgian independence between 1918 and 1925, some influential Georgians expressed an interest in union with the Church of Rome, and an envoy was sent from Rome in 1919 to examine the situation. As a result of the onset of civil war and Soviet occupation, this came to nothing.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union an apostolic administration (of Latin Rite) of the Caucasus was established on 30 December 1993, with headquarters in the Georgian capital. In 2003, it had 50,050 faithful.

Sources

• Oriente Cattolico (Vatican City: The Sacred Congregation for the Eastern Churches, 1974)
• Annuario Pontificio
• Eastern Catholic Communities without Hierarchies
• [1]

External links

• Eastern Catholic communities
• Katholische Ostkirchen