Today's Armenia is a small state south of the Caucasus. However, in the past the name “Armenia” applied to a much larger territory stretching from the Black and Caspian Seas in the north to Lakes Van and Urmia in the south. Today this region is split up between Turkey, Iran, and Azerbaijan. Paradoxically, Mount Ararat (its Armenian name is Masis), an Armenian holy site and symbol of Armenia, on which according to the Book of Genesis (8, 4) Noah's ark came to rest after the Flood, is no longer within the borders of Armenia. The Armenian nation is one of the very few ancient peoples which have survived to the present times with a historic legacy of around twenty-six hundred years. For this reason Armenia is sometimes referred to as “the cradle of civilisation.” For many people the history of this land and its religion have an exotic Oriental air. Yet there are few Oriental nations so deeply rooted in Western culture. Armenia and its people appeared time and again on the pages of medieval chronicles, chivalric romances, in European diplomacy and in papal records. The history of the Armenian nation and its Christian religion is a real East-meets-West story, and that is why it has caught the interest of historians from many countries.

The Armenian Church is one of the oldest branches of Christianity. As it broke away quite early from the mainstream of Christianity in the Roman Empire, a number of ancient vestiges going back to the first Christian communities have survived in its rites and traditions. A knowledge of Armenian is virtually a must for Biblical scholars and patrologists. Many of the treatises written by the Fathers of the Church and other early Christian writers the originals of which have been lost have been preserved in Armenian translations. A good example is the famous Chronicle by Eusebius of Caesarea, which was discovered in the late 18th century in a collection of translations done by ancient Armenian translators. There are still a lot of patristic texts extant only in Armenian manuscripts or editions. Perhaps in the future they will throw an interesting light on the history of the Early Church and Christian philosophy and theology. Armenian rites have attracted the attention of many Western liturgists interested in the origins of Early Christian ritual and devotion.