After the 2nd Synod of Dvin of the Armenian Apostolic Church in 554, the Armenian Church reaffirmed its rejection of the Chalcedonian Definition, causing controversy between the Monophysitists and the pro-Byzantine clerics within the Armenian Church. According to the 7th-century Armenian historian Sebeos, the Eastern Orthodox Church has appointed the pro-Byzantine Armenian cleric John of Bagavan as a counter-Cathoicos of the Armenian Church. In 591, John of Bagavan built the Holy Mother of God Katoghike Tsiranavor Church in Avan village as the seat of his then unrecognized Catholicos. The many inscriptions in the Greek and Georgian languages on the church façade, dating back to the 7th and the 13th centuries respectively, suggest that the Avan was still the centre of the breakaway of pro-Byzantine Armenian Church. However, Avan was severely damaged during the devastating Yerevan earthquake of 1679.