Paper abstract:

The history of the twenty-century-old Georgian Orthodox Apostolic Autocephalous Church began with the preaching of the Apostles Andrew the First-Called and Simon Canaan. After the Great Schism, the religious picture in Georgia changed. Catholic missionaries have been entering Georgia since the 13th century. The goal of the Catholic Church was to reunite the churches under Roman rule. Because of the consistent work of various orders of missionaries, the number of Georgian Catholics increased and the already ethnically and religiously diverse picture became even more diverse.

Our research era is the XIX century when Georgia seemed to find itself in the clutches of Russia (as if coming with kindness). Russia has not fulfilled any of the points of the treaty between Russia and Georgia concluded in Georgievsk in 1783. Russia began mass persecution of Catholic missionaries and finally banned their activities at all.

The materials preserved in the historical archives and manuscripts of Georgia are interesting both in terms of the missionaries' work in our country, as well as in terms of Russia's relationship with Catholics and monotheistic Georgia. This is the era when Russia deprived Georgia of its independence, first abolished the royal throne in eastern and then in western Georgia, abolished the 14-century-old autocephaly of the church, and made it an exarchate of Russia.

In Georgia, it seemed that the opposing Orthodox and Catholics now had a common enemy - Russia. Catholic missionaries often supported orthodox Georgians and secretly assisted them in their fight against their monotheistic believer, Russia. An example of this is priest Nicolas Rutinian, who was persecuted by Russia for its anti-Russian propaganda.

The work of Catholic missionaries in Georgia in our historiography largely is assessed in a negative light. On the positive side, their work is discussed only by scholars of the Catholic faith.

There are some contradictions in dogmatic-theological issues, but our churches continued to unite even after the division of the churches for a certain period of time. So this separation is the result of a political situation and not just a dogmatic difference. We think we owe more tolerance to Catholics.

Representing the role of the Catholic Church in Georgia, together with the history of the Orthodox Apostolic Church, makes the picture of the historical-religious situation in our country more complete.