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The Roman Catholic Church in Azerbaijan is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. The number of faithful number around 400 out of a total population of over nine million. About half of the congregation consists of foreigners that work as diplomats or work for oil companies.〔 (Construction of Catholic Church in Baku Coming to End ) by R.Manafli. ''Echo''. 8 March 2007〕 The country is covered entirely by a single Apostolic Prefecture since 2011. ==Origins== Christians have been present in Azerbaijan since the 1st century AD. Starting from 1320, Catholic missionaries such as Jordanus and Odoric of Pordenone have visited what is now Azerbaijan and have established missions mostly in large cities. In the 14th century in Nakhchivan alone, there were 12 missions led by Dominicans, Jesuits, Capuchins, Augustinians, etc. In 1660 Superior of the Capuchin Mission at Isfahan, friar Raphaël du Mans reported Catholic parishes functioning in Baku and Shamakhi.〔Du Mans, Raphaël. L'Estat de la Perse en 1660. C. Schefer (ed). Paris, 1890〕 Jesuits arrived and set a mission in Ganja in the 1680s.〔 (Christianity in Azerbaijan ). ''Realny Azerbaijan''. 18 May 2006. Retrieved 29 April 2007〕 In the 14th and 15th centuries, efforts of Bartholomew, a Dominican missionary from Bologna, resulted in the conversion of 28 settlements in Nakhchivan into Roman Catholicism. Despite hardships and pressure from the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicism survived here for over three centuries, after which it went into decline and by the 1800s was no longer practiced.〔Chardin, John. "The travels of Sir John Chardin, by the way of the Black Sea, through the countries of Circassia, Mingrelia, the country of the Abcas, Georgia, Armenia, and Media, into Persia proper: 1643-1713." Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World. Ed. John Pinkerton. Vol. 9. London: Strahan and Preston, 1811.〕 With the establishment of the Russian rule, these lands became a popular destination for members of various Christian denominations. Catholics were represented by ethnic Poles who started immigrating to Baku and Shemakhi in the mid-19th century, Ukrainians, Georgian Catholics, Armenian Catholics, as well as Western Europeans who stayed in Baku on a temporary or permanent basis. The village of Siyaqut in Nakhchivan was founded in the 1850s by Assyrian immigrants from Salmas, Persia and remained the only Chaldean Christian village in the South Caucasus. Beginning in the 1880s, the priest serving in Siyaqut was ordained by the Roman Catholic bishop.〔(Brief History of Assyrian Settlement in Russia ).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Roman Catholicism in Azerbaijan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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