Editing Christianization (section)

=== Armenia, Georgia, Ethiopia and Eritrea ===
In 301, [[Christianization of Armenia|Armenia]] became the first kingdom in history to adopt Christianity as an official state religion.{{sfn|Cohan|2005|p=333}} The transformations taking place in these centuries of the Roman Empire had been slower to catch on in Caucasia. Indigenous writing did not begin until the fifth century, there was an absence of large cities, and many institutions such as monasticism did not exist in Caucasia until the seventh century.{{sfn|Aleksidze|2018|p=138}} Scholarly consensus places the Christianization of the Armenian and Georgian elites in the first half of the fourth century, although Armenian tradition says Christianization began in the first century through the Apostles [[Jude the Apostle|Thaddeus]] and [[Bartholomew the Apostle|Bartholomew]].{{sfn|Aleksidze|2018|p=135}} This is said to have eventually led to the conversion of the [[Arsacid dynasty of Armenia|Arsacid family]], (the royal house of Armenia), through [[St. Gregory the Illuminator]] in the early fourth century.{{sfn|Aleksidze|2018|p=135}}

Christianization took many generations and was not a uniform process.{{sfn|Thomson|1988|p=35}} Byzantine historian Robert Thomson writes that it was not the officially established hierarchy of the church that spread Christianity in Armenia; "It was the unorganized activity of wandering holy men that brought about the Christianization of the populace at large".{{sfn|Thomson|1988|p=45}} The most significant stage in this process was the development of a script for the native tongue.{{sfn|Thomson|1988|p=45}}

Scholars do not agree on the exact date of [[Christianization of Georgia]], but most assert the early 4th century when [[Mirian III]] of the [[Kingdom of Iberia]] (known locally as [[Kartli]]) adopted Christianity.{{sfn|Rapp|2007|p=138}} According to medieval [[Georgian Chronicles]], Christianization began with [[Andrew the Apostle]] and culminated in the evangelization of Iberia through the efforts of a captive woman known in Iberian tradition as [[Saint Nino]] in the fourth century.{{sfn|Aleksidze|2018|pp=135–136}} Fifth, 8th, and 12th century accounts of the conversion of Georgia reveal how pre-Christian practices were taken up and reinterpreted by Christian narrators.{{sfn|Horn|1998|p=262}}

In 325, the [[Kingdom of Aksum]] (Modern [[Ethiopia]] and [[Eritrea]]) became the second country to declare Christianity as its official state religion.{{sfn|Brita|2020|p=252}}