There is every reason to believe that in Kyrgyzstan, on Issyk-Kul, lies one of the greatest Christian relics – the sarcophagus with the relics of St. Apostle Evangelist Matthew, one of Christ's closest disciples. As known from Sacred Tradition, St. Apostle Matthew suffered a martyr's death at the hands of pagans for preaching Christ in Syria, and it was here that his incorrupt relics were kept. When the Roman Emperor Decius (249–251) declared persecution against Christianity in all the countries conquered by the Roman Empire, the believers, fearing desecration of the relics, transferred the relics of St. Matthew to Central Asia – a region renowned for its religious tolerance.
Issyk-Kul: the trace of the Apostle Matthew. The Encyclopedia became the organizer of the next expedition of Fyodor Konyukhov, starting in September 2013 at Lake Issyk-Kul, under the auspices of the World Encyclopedia of Travel. The idea of the research expedition belongs to Fyodor Konyukhov and carries not only a historical but also a socio-humanitarian character. The goal of the expedition is to verify the hypothesis that beneath the waters of the lake lie the ruins of a monastery where the sarcophagus with the relics of St. Apostle Evangelist Matthew was kept.
The hypothesis is based on historical facts, in particular, the famous "Catalan Map" of 1375, which marks the monastery and contains an inscription in Old Latin stating that it is there that the relics of Christ's closest disciple, the Apostle Matthew, one of the four Evangelists, are located.
The Gospels (εὐαγγέλιον — "good news" - Greek) are the life accounts of Jesus Christ, compiled from the books of four of Christ's disciples (Apostles). The Gospels are part of the New Testament (Καινὴ Διαθήκη - Greek), which, in turn, represents one of the two parts of the Bible, alongside the Old Testament.
The Monastery of the Armenian Brothers on Lake Issyk-Kul
In the 19th century, the great Russian traveler and scientist P.P. Semenov Tyan-Shansky, while in Venice, studied the Catalan map created in 1375 by the cartographer Cresques. On the map, in a barely recognizable area of Semirechye, there was an image of a monastery with two domes and crosses, along with an inscription in Old Latin: "Lo loch quis assella Yssicol. En aquest loch es I monesstir de frares ermonians, ot Segons ques diu, es lo cors de sent Mathi apostul e evangelista" – "The place called Issyk-Kul. In this place is the monastery of the Armenian brothers, where, they say, is the body of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist." The scholar visited the shores of the lake but did not find traces of the monastery, assuming that it had sunk underwater.
The Catalan map is not the only evidence of the presence of Armenian brothers in Central Asia, although it is the only one that preserved information about the somewhat unexpected location of the relics of St. Evangelist Matthew, whose activities took place in the Middle East and Ethiopia. Central Asia in the Middle Ages was a place where Christian preaching (as well as the preaching of many other teachings) was heard and gained many followers.
The reason for the spread of Christianity to the east was the condemnation of Nestorianism (dyophysitism) as a heretical teaching at the Council of Ephesus held in 431. After the Chalcedonian Council in 451, the final schism of the Christian community occurred, leading to mass persecutions of Nestorians and adherents of other heretical Christological teachings.
At the same time, the religious community of Armenians split, with some becoming supporters of the decisions of the Chalcedonian Council – the Chalcedonians, while a larger part remained supporters of pre-Chalcedonian theology, united under the Armenian Apostolic Church. Experiencing oppression, many Nestorian Christians migrated to Persia.
From there, they migrated by sea to India and China, and along trade routes to Central Asia and Mongolia, where they were accepted without hindrance. Seeing such a favorable environment, many missionaries of various Christological teachings moved to Asian countries. Sometimes monastic orders deliberately delegated them to the most remote areas.
Religious communities were established, chapels, churches, and small monasteries were built. One of the centers of the spread of Christianity in Central Asia was the Nestorian Merv Metropolitanate located in modern-day Turkmenistan. Another center of dissemination was likely the city of Chula (Derbent), where Christianity was adopted in 313. The city stood on the caravan route and was the northern outpost of Caucasian Albania, whose church was in canonical unity with the Armenian church. Only as a result of the Arab conquest (8th century) did the significance of Christianity here significantly decline, but it did not disappear without a trace.
Semirechye, including the area around Issyk-Kul, has historically been a favorable area for life. Many settlers from Central Asia, who appeared as a result of the Arab invasion, settled here. The resistance offered to the Arabs in the Talas Valley by the combined forces of the Turkic Khaganate and Tang China prevented Islam from spreading further east. This allowed Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Christianity to exist in the Chui Valley for several more centuries. The positions of the latter were quite strong here. Approximately at the site of modern Bishkek, there existed the city of Tarsakent ("settlement of Christians").
Archaeologists have excavated churches from the 8th-10th centuries and ancient cemeteries with Armenian inscriptions from the 13th-14th centuries on gravestones, and in Tarsakent there was a large Armenian community. In 1332, the Armenian bishop John was buried here. The emergence of the monastery of the Armenian brothers on the shores of Issyk-Kul in the 12th-14th centuries is quite logical. The Armenian monastery may not have been the only one here. This opinion has been repeatedly expressed by researchers, and the findings of archaeologists confirm this possibility. But only one monastery's information made it onto the Catalan map, undoubtedly due to the relics of the Evangelist Matthew. The possession of a relic of such significance distinguished the monastery from others.
Source: planetguide.ru