Georgian Catholic Church
From Freepedia
Georgian Catholich Church has called the Georgian Catholics, who followd the Oriental (Byzantine) rite. There were Georgian Catholics since 1860, they founded the monastery Fery-Quoa in Constantinople (it exists still and is today in private hands). Two religious congregations of the Immaculate Conception were founded in 1861 also in Constantinople by Father Peter Karishiaranti (Pétre Kharistshirashvili) to work among the Catholics of Georgia of both Byzantine and Latin rites, but they were impeded in their work by the seizure of Georgia by the Russian Soviets. In 1917 when Georgia cut off ecclesiastical ties from the Moscow Patriarchate and some Georgians closed to already existing Georgian Catholic Church Byzantine rite. The number of them was c. 10 000 in 1920, whereas there were 40 000 of the Latin rite. The Byzantine Georgian Catholics ceased to exist in the Soviet times, the remnants of the Catholic community are members of the Latin Rite.
