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Which church came first? The Orthodox or the Catholic Church?

At the beginning of Christianity the churches were named after their location i.e. the church of Jerusalem, the church of Antioch, the church of Alexandria, the Church of Rome and so on. The term Catholic meaning "universal" was first applied to the Church by St. Ignatius of Antioch (170 A.D.) writing to the church at Smyrna: "Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church" (Smyr, VIII, 2).

The term, as used by the fathers of the church, means the true church; and was applied to the body of the faithful, the creed, church institutions, clergy and hierarchy who follow the same teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ as given by the Apostles. Hence, at the end of the creed we declare "We believe in one Holy Catholic Apostolic Church." At that time all the churches founded by the apostles were referred to as Catholic (with capital C) and Orthodox (with capital O), which means universal and having the true faith.

After Chalcedon (451 A.D.) and the second split in 1054 A.D., the church of Rome became known as catholic church (with small c) and the eastern churches as orthodox church (with small c) to distinguish between the western churches and the eastern churches and the difference in their dogmatic beliefs. But in spite of this nomenclature, until now the Coptic Orthodox Church is called both Catholic and Orthodox (with capital C and O) referring to her universality and true faith.