The history of the
Orthodox Church actually begins in the Acts of the Holy Apostles, with the
Descent of the Holy Spirit: When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all
together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a
mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there
appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of
them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other
tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:1-4). As the text further
tells us, on that same day, after St. Peter had preached to the gathered
people, those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that
day about three thousand souls (Acts 2:41), thus constituting the first
Christian community at Jerusalem.
This first community of Christians,
headed by St. James, the Brother of the Lord — the first Bishop of the city —
was later scattered by the persecutions which followed the stoning of the first
martyr of the Christian Church, St. Stephen: And on that day a great
persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered
throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the Apostles (Acts 8:1).
At the same time, faithful to the
Lord's command to go...and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19), the
Apostles went out and preached wherever they went, first to the Jews and then
to the Gentiles, so that in a surprisingly short time, Christian communities
had sprung up in all the main centers of the Roman world and beyond. Their
exploits are recorded in the Acts, as well in the inner tradition of the
Orthodox Church.