Catholic Church In Azerbaijan
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The Catholic Church in Azerbaijan is part of the worldwide
Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
, under the spiritual leadership of the
Pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...
in
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
. There are about 570 local Catholics in the country as of 2016. Azerbaijan is covered entirely by a single
Apostolic Prefecture An apostolic prefect or prefect apostolic is a priest who heads what is known as an apostolic prefecture, a 'pre-diocesan' missionary jurisdiction where the Catholic Church is not yet sufficiently developed to have it made a diocese. Although it ...
Apostolic Prefecture of Baku – since 2011. The community is served by seven
Salesian The Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), formally known as the Society of Saint Francis de Sales (), is a religious congregation of men in the Catholic Church, founded in 1859 by the Italian priest John Bosco to help poor and migrant youth during the ...
priests and two friars. In addition, there is a mission of the
Missionaries of Charity The Missionaries of Charity () is a Catholic centralised religious institute of consecrated life of Pontifical Right for women established in 1950 by Mother Teresa, now known in the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta. , it consisted o ...
.Архиепископ Павел Пецци рукоположил семинариста Бехбуда Мустафаева в сан диакона
. Catholic Archdiocese of Moscow. 29 May 2016.


Origins

Christians have been present on the territories covered by present-day Azerbaijan since the first century AD. Starting from 1320, Catholic missionaries such as Jordanus and
Odoric of Pordenone Odoric of Pordenone (c. 1280–14 January 1331) was a Franciscan friar and missionary explorer from Friuli in northeast Italy. He journeyed through India, Sumatra, Java, and China, where he spent three years in the imperial capital of Khanbaliq ...
have visited what is now Azerbaijan and have established missions mostly in large cities. In the fourteenth century in Nakhchivan alone, there were 12 missions led by
Dominicans Dominicans () also known as Quisqueyans () are an ethnic group, ethno-nationality, national people, a people of shared ancestry and culture, who have ancestral roots in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican ethnic group was born out of a fusio ...
, Capuchins,
Augustinians Augustinians are members of several religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written about 400 A.D. by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13 ...
, etc. In 1660 Superior of the Capuchin Mission at
Isfahan Isfahan or Esfahan ( ) is a city in the Central District (Isfahan County), Central District of Isfahan County, Isfahan province, Iran. It is the capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is located south of Tehran. The city ...
, friar Raphaël du Mans reported Catholic parishes functioning in
Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...
and
Shamakhi Shamakhi (, ) is a city in Azerbaijan and the administrative centre of the Shamakhi District. The city's estimated population was 31,704. It is famous for its traditional dancers, the Shamakhi Dancers, and also for perhaps giving its name to th ...
. Jesuits arrived and set a mission in
Ganja ''Ganja'' (, ; ) is one of the oldest and most commonly used synonyms for cannabis flower, specifically marijuana or hashish. Its usage in English dates to before 1689. Etymology ''Ganja'' is borrowed from Hindi (, IPA: aːɲd͡ʒa ...
in the 1680s. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, efforts of Bartholomew, a Dominican missionary from
Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
, resulted in the conversion of 28 settlements in Nakhchivan (with Bənəniyar being the largest) into
Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
. Despite hardships and pressure from the
Armenian Apostolic Church The Armenian Apostolic Church () is the Autocephaly, autocephalous national church of Armenia. Part of Oriental Orthodoxy, it is one of the most ancient Christianity, Christian churches. The Armenian Apostolic Church, like the Armenian Catholic ...
, Catholicism survived here for over three centuries, after which it went into decline and by the 1800s was no longer practiced.


Russian and Soviet period

With the establishment of the
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
rule in the nineteenth century, these lands became a popular destination for members of various Christian denominations. Catholics were represented by ethnic
Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...
who started immigrating to Baku and Shamakhi in the mid-19th century,
Ukrainians Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...
, Georgian Catholics, Armenian Catholics, as well as
Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...
ans who stayed in Baku on a temporary or permanent basis. The Catholic population of Shamakhi just before the 1859 earthquake and the city's loss of provincial capital status numbered around 250 persons. The village of Siyaqut in Nakhchivan was founded in the 1850s by Assyrian immigrants from
Salmas Salmas () is a city in the Central District of Salmas County, West Azerbaijan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. It is northwest of Lake Urmia, near Turkey. Etymology The original name of Salmas was ...
,
Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
and remained the only
Chaldean Catholic The Chaldean Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic particular church ('' sui iuris'') 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 Syri ...
village in the
South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and West Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Armenia, ...
. Beginning in the 1880s, the priest serving in Siyaqut was ordained by the
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
bishop. In the early twentieth century there was a community in
Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...
made up of Polish, German, and Russian immigrants for whose needs the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in 1912. Two other smaller churches were built throughout the second half of the nineteenth century: in Qusar, where a hussar regiment made up of ethnic Poles had been quartered, and in Zagatala where participants of the 1863
January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...
had been exiled.Polish diplomat visits Zagatala district of Azerbaijan
In 1916, the number of Catholic church mass attendees in Baku was over 2,500. The arrival of
Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
in 1920 put an end to religious freedoms. In the early 1930s, on the orders of the Stalinist government, the small community's only priest Stefan Demurov was executed. In 1931, the communist authorities demolished the church in Baku. The church in Qusar fell in disuse after the transfer of the hussar regiment in 1918, as few Poles remained in the town. Its building is currently used as an art gallery. The church in Zagatala is now private property.


Post-Soviet period

As Azerbaijan is a secular country the 1996 law stated that foreigners have
freedom of conscience Freedom of conscience is the freedom of an individual to act upon their moral beliefs. In particular, it often refers to the freedom to ''not do'' something one is normally obliged, ordered or expected to do. An individual exercising this freedom m ...
, but denied the right to "carry out religious propaganda", i.e., to preach, under the threat of fines or deportation. Rafig Aliyev, head of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations, had declared that this ban for the foreigners to conduct religious work will be amended. The 1992 law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On Freedom of Faith" guarantees every individual the right to determine and express their views on religion and to exercise this right. In 1997, a Slovak priest came to Baku to restart the Catholic community. On 11 October 2000, the mission
sui iuris ''Sui iuris'' (), also spelled ''sui juris'', is a Latin phrase that literally means "of one's own right". It is used in both the Catholic Church's canon law and secular law. The term church ''sui iuris'' is used in the Catholic ''Code of Canon ...
of
Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...
was established covering the whole of the country, with Daniel Pravda as its first superior. Pravda had worked in
Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
for many years when he became head of the mission, and noted that when he was first appointed, the church had no structure, and there were many problems with the government relating to visas, but when a new Religious affairs official was appointed, problems abated and preparations for a Papal visit gained traction. On May 23, 2002,
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...
visited the country, despite his increasingly fragile health. He was initially invited by Azerbaijan's president,
Heydar Aliyev Heydar Alirza oghlu Aliyev (10 May 1923 – 12 December 2003) was an Azerbaijani politician who was a Soviet party boss in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic from 1969 to 1982, and the third president of Azerbaijan from October 1993 to ...
. Thanks to his visit, President Aliyev gave the Catholic Church a plot of land to build a church. The building was funded by proceeds from Pope John Paul II's book sales and foreign donations. Delegates from
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...
attended the first Congress of Catholic Laity of Eastern Europe in 2003. When Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, the apostolic
nuncio An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is ...
to Azerbaijan, visited the country he encountered many elderly believers who had waited almost 70 years to receive the sacrament of
confirmation In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant (religion), covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. The ceremony typically involves laying on o ...
. St Mary's Catholic Church of Baku, the only Catholic church in the country, was rebuilt, with work nearing its end in March 2007.Construction of Catholic Church in Baku Coming to End
by R.Manafli. ''Echo''. 8 March 2007
It was inaugurated by
Cardinal Secretary of State The Secretary of State of His Holiness (; ), also known as the Cardinal Secretary of State or the Vatican Secretary of State, presides over the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, the oldest and most important dicastery of the Roman Curia. Th ...
Tarcisio Bertone Tarcisio Pietro Evasio Bertone (born 2 December 1934) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church and a Vatican City, Vatican diplomat. A Cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal since 2003, he served as Archbishop of Vercelli from 1991 to 1995, as S ...
on 7 March 2008, 70 years after it had been shut down by the Soviets. The Mission of Baku became on 4 August 2011 the Apostolic Prefecture of Azerbaijan, with a Catholic population of 520. The Apostolic Prefect is Bishop Vladimir Fekete, a Slovak like his fellow
Salesian The Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), formally known as the Society of Saint Francis de Sales (), is a religious congregation of men in the Catholic Church, founded in 1859 by the Italian priest John Bosco to help poor and migrant youth during the ...
predecessors Jozef Pravda and Jan Čapla. Only a few of the Catholics are Azeris, and the congregation's working languages are
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
and English. On April 29, 2011, an accord was reached between the
Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...
and the government of
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...
concerning the relations of the two states, and the various rights and freedoms of the Catholic Church and its personnel within the country, with Azerbaijan establishing an embassy to the Vatican in 2021. In 2012, Azerbaijan became the first Muslim-majority country to take part in a Vatican-run heritage project, funding conservation works at the Catacombs of Commodilla, among others. In 2016, Behbud Mustafayev was ordained the first Catholic deacon of Azeri origin by archbishop
Paolo Pezzi Paolo Pezzi, Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St.Charles Borromeo, FSCB (; born 8 August 1960), also known as Pavel Pezzi, is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church, currently serving as the Latin Church archbishop of the Roman Cath ...
. On 7 May 2017, he was ordained into priesthood by
Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...
. In October 2016, Pope Francis visited Azerbaijan on what was the second papal visit in the country's history during which he emphasised Azerbaijan's embrace of religious diversity. In 2024, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican's Secretary for Relations with States and International Organisations, visited Azerbaijan to lay the foundation stone of a new Catholic church in Baku.


See also

*
Catholic Church by country The Catholic Church is "the Catholic Communion of Churches, both Roman and Eastern, or Oriental, that are in full communion with the Bishop of Rome (the pope)."Richard P. McBrien. ''The Church: The Evolution of Catholicism.'' (New York: Harper ...
* Christ the Redeemer Parish *
Christianity in Azerbaijan Christianity in Azerbaijan is a minority religion. Christians, estimated between 280,000 and 450,000 (3.1%–4.8%), are mostly Russian and Georgian Orthodox. There is also a small Protestant Christian community which mostly came from Muslim b ...
* Religion in Azerbaijan


References


External links


Catholic Church in Azerbaijan – Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Azerbaijan, Roman Catholicism in
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...