Apostles Paul, Peter, James, John and Jude write their epistles. Matthew, Mark and Luke write their gospels.

According to legend, Apostle Thomas takes Christianity to Kerala, India.

Martyrdom of saints Peter and Paul under Roman emperor Nero.

Matthew, Mark and Luke write their gospels.

Armenia is first country to adopt Christianity.

The Roman emperor Diocletian (reign 284–305) has thousands of Christians killed, including Saint George.

Emperor Constantine (reign 306–37) legalises Christian church and ends persecutions.

Constantine shifts capital of Roman empire to Byzantium, which he renames Nova Roma (New Rome), and then Constantinople.

Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, makes pilgrimage to Holy Land and ‘discovers’ Cross of Jesus in Jerusalem.

Ethiopia is second country officially to adopt Christianity as state religion.

Basil the Great (circa 329–79) founds first monastery in Cappadocia, in present-day Turkey, and establishes rules for monastic life.

Emperor Theodosius I (reign 379–95) makes Christianity official religion of Roman empire.

Second Ecumenical Council, also known as First Council of Constantinople, supported by Theodosius I, asserts equal status of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (‘Holy Trinity’). It ordains four Church jurisdictions under Patriarchal bishops: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and later Jerusalem.

Roman empire splits into western (Roman) part and eastern (Greek) part.

Saint Jerome translates Bible from Greek into Latin.

Third Ecumenical Council, or Council of Ephesus, establishes Mary as God-bearer or Theotokos, rejecting teachings of Constantinople archbishop Nestorius that she was simply the mother of Christ.

Fourth Ecumenical Council, known as Council of Chalcedon, establishes that Jesus is both god and man, and rejects ‘miaphysite’ position that Christ is divine and human ‘unified in one person.’ This ruling causes a rupture. Bishops in Egypt, Syria and Ethiopia break with Constantinople and become the Oriental Orthodox Church.

Construction of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) Church in Constantinople under Christian emperor Justinian I (reign 527–65).

Church council in Constantinople permits depiction of Christ as a man rather than in his symbolic form of a lamb.

First depiction of Christ on gold coins of the Byzantine empire during reign of Justinian II (reigns 685–95, 705–11).

First wave of iconoclasm (‘breaking of icons’), a movement rejecting carved, engraved or painted icons (‘graven images’) over concerns about idolatry.

Iconoclast emperor Constantine V (reign 741–75) rejects images of Christ and the saints.

Seventh Ecumenical Council of Nicaea overturns decision of Constantine V and permits the making and veneration of icons but forbids their worship.

Second wave of iconoclasm under Leo V (reign 813–20), Michael II (820–29) and Theophilus (829–42).

Theophilus’s widow Empress Theodora rejects his iconoclasm. This event, known as the ‘Triumph of Orthodoxy’, is still celebrated today.

Tzar Boris I of Bulgaria (reign 852–89) converts to Christianity. Saints Cyril and Methodius bring Christianity to the Slavs.

Grand Prince Vladimir (reign 980–1015) of Kievan Rus’ (including much of present-day Russia, Belarus and Ukraine) converts to Christianity and requires mass baptism of his subjects in the Dnieper River.

Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople (term 1043–59) and Cardinal Humbert, representing Pope Leo IX of Rome, excommunicate each other over minor points of doctrine, marking permanent split of the two churches into Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

The Fourth Crusade, led by the Venetians, sacks and occupies Constantinople en route to the Holy Land, imposing Latin rule. Looted relics, including miracle-working icons, are transferred to western cities, especially Venice. Venice assumes control of Crete.

The Byzantines of Nicaea under Michael VIII Palaiologos (reign 1261–82), reconquer Constantinople from the Latins and establish the Palaiologan dynasty that rules until 1453. A cultural flowering takes place in the restored Orthodox capital, known as the ‘Palaiologan Renaissance’.

The Turks conquer Constantinople, ending the Byzantine empire and establishing an Ottoman empire. Many artists flee to Venetian-occupied Crete.

With the end of Byzantium, Russia positions itself as the ‘Third Rome’ assuming the spiritual authority of both Christianised Rome and Constantinople.

Ethiopian rulers send embassies to Europe for icons, relics and liturgical objects. Icons from Crete of the Mother of God are particularly prized as miracle-working.

Stoglav Synod, convoked in Moscow, privileges Russian rituals over Greek ones and compels iconographers to emulate icons of the painter-monk Andrei Rublev (c.1365–c.1428).

Russian patriarch Nikon (term 1652–66) seeks to align doctrines and rituals of Russian and Greek Orthodoxy. His reforms trigger a bitter schism between Nikon’s New Believers and Old Believers, who fear that the essence of Orthodoxy is under attack. Old Believers are persecuted for their defiance.

The Greek island of Crete, Venice’s largest and richest possession, is captured by the Ottoman empire.