September 8, 1701: Foundation of the Mekhitarist Congregation

Mekhitar of Sebastia

Since its inception, the educational and cultural activities of the Mekhitarist Congregation had a very important role in Armenian history. After becoming a priest at the age of 20, Mekhitar of Sebastia (1676-1749) decided to find a congregation in order to work collectively to increase the spiritual, moral and intellectual levels of the Armenian people. He was consecrated celibate priest in 1699 and soon converted to Catholicism. However, he did not renege his Armenian ancestry and identity.

On September 8, 1701, on the feast of the birth of the Virgin Mary, Mekhitar and a group of sympathizers founded the congregation of St. Anthony the Abbot in Constantinople. The congregation initially had twelve members, including four celibate priests. The conflict between the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic communities in the Ottoman capital took a bloody turnaround. Mekhitar and his sympathizers fled the Ottoman persecution and moved to the Peninsula of Morea (Peloponessus), in Greece, which was under the domination of the Republic of Venice, and settled in the fortress of Methon.

The Mekhitarist Monastery on the island of San Lazarro in the Venetian Grotto.

An assembly held in 1705 prepared the draft bylaws of the Congregation, based on the bylaws of the Benedictine Congregation and extracted from the canons of the life of St. Anthony the Abbot. He sent two of his students to Rome with the draft, and letters to Pope Clement XI and the governor of the Propaganda Fide. The assembly of the Propaganda Fide, since the canons of St. Anthony were incomplete, suggested Mekhitar to choose from the canons of St. Basil, St. Augustine, or St. Benedict. The Armenian priest chose the canons of St. Benedict and presented the new draft of bylaws to the Pope on May 12, 1711. The bylaws were approved by Clement XI in 1717, who bestowed the title of Abbot upon Mekhitar.

The library inside the Mekhitarist Monastery in Vienna, Austria.

 Meanwhile, a war started between the Ottoman Empire and Venice in December 1714. Mekhitar and most of the congregation members fled Methon and moved to Venice. However, they needed a cloister and a monastery to carry on their plans. The Venetian Senate had just approved a law that forbade the establishment of any new religious congregation in the city. Nevertheless, the highest body took Mekhitar’s request into consideration and proposed that he find a place outside the city. Mekhitar chose the island of San Lazzaro, which belonged to the order of the Mendicants. On August 26, 1717, the Senate of Venice conceded the island to the congregation with right of permanent residence, and Mekhitar and his followers, a total of sixteen, settled there on September 8, the anniversary of the foundation of the congregation. The renovation work at the church was completed in 1723, and Mekhitar started the construction of a new monastery, which was finished in 1740, including a library and a refectory. Mekhitar passed away on April 27, 1749, and was buried before the main altar of the island. On his death, he had already achieved the publication of some twenty books, including the first volume of the Haigazian Dictionary, which his disciples would complete twenty years later. After his passing, the Congregation was named after him.

Founding of Hantes Amsorya - January 1, 1887

The two oldest Armenian periodicals of the world have been published since the nineteenth century and belong to the Mekhitarist Congregation. The first one is Pazmaveb (Բազմավէպ), founded in 1843 in Venice, and the second one is Hantes Amsorya (Հանդէս Ամսօրեայ), founded in 1887 in Vienna. We should note that the Congregation, founded by Mekhitar of Sebastia in 1701 and established in the island of San Lazzaro, in Venice (Italy), in 1717, suffered a division in 1771 and a second branch settled in Vienna (Austria) in 1811. The two branches reunited in 2001 under a single authority with headquarters in San Lazzaro, although the two Mekhitarist monasteries continue their activities.

Father Arsen Aydinian (1825-1902), who was abbot of the Vienna congregation from 1866 until his death, was most famous as the author, in 1866, of a grammar of Modern Armenian which set the grounds for the development of Western Armenian as a literary language. However, he was also the founder of Hantes Amsorya. The name of the journal simply means “Monthly Review.”

The journal succeeded two previous periodicals published by the Viennese monks, Dzanotutiunk vajarakidutian (“Notes of Commerce,” 1819) and Yevroba (“Europe,” 1847-1863). Between 1887 and 1894 it had general educational purposes, but starting in 1895 it became the flagship publication of Armenian Studies in the world until the foundation of the Armenian Academy of Sciences and the Yerevan State University and the publication of regular periodicals of Armenian Studies in the Republic of Armenia. Edited by a member of the Congregation, Hantes Amsorya was initially a monthly (until 1915) and then became bimonthly, quarterly, semi-annual and, since 1980, yearly. Despite the changes in periodicity, it attracted successive generations of Armenian and non-Armenian scholars, who have published articles and lengthy studies in all sorts of disciplines in Armenian, German, English, French, and Italian.

Since the late nineteenth century, most studies first published in Hantes Amsorya have been later reprinted as books in a collection maintained by the Mekhitarist Congregation and called National Library (Ազգային Մատենաշար, Azkayin Madenashar). During the past decade, the journal has been published simultaneously in Vienna and Yerevan.

Death of Father Ghevont Alishan (November 9, 1901)

Father Ghevont Alishan was one of the foremost names in nineteenth century Armenian scholarship and literary history. He authored several mammoth books on Armenian history, archaeology, and geography, which are still regarded as precious primary sources.

Kerovpe Alishan was born in Constantinople on July 18, 1820. His father, Bedros Alishanian, was an antiquarian and numismatist. He was sent to the monastery of San Lazzaro, the center of the Mekhitarist Congregation in Venice, in 1832. He studied for four years at the seminary and then continued his higher studies. In 1841 he became a teacher at the Moorat-Raphaelian School of the Congregation, in Venice. He started to contribute his poems to the flagship journal of the Mekhitarists, Bazmavep, published since 1843. He became principal of the School in 1848. The Italian rebellion against Austrian rule in that year, as part of the revolutionary movement that exploded throughout Europe, fired his imagination. He wrote several patriotic poems, of which the most famous was the one dedicated to Vahan Mamikonian (nephew of Vartan Mamikonian, the hero of the battle of Avarayr) that starts with the words Բա՛մբ, որոտան... (Pamp, vorodan...). This would become a celebrated patriotic march, a sort of unofficial Armenian hymn until the first decades of the twentieth century.

Between 1850 and 1853, Alishan visited some important European cities, such as Rome, London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna, where he studied Armenian manuscripts and cultural artifacts, and gathered materials for his future investigations. During his journey, he translated the fourth chant of Lord Byron’s famous poem, Childe Harold.

 

He became the principal of the Mekhitarist school of Paris, Samuel-Moorat, from 1858-1861. He quit his position in November 1861 and returned to San Lazzaro. Again in 1866 he took the helm of the Moorat-Raphaelian School and worked as a principal until 1872. Afterwards, he abandoned the educational field to concentrate on his scholarship of Armenian Studies until his death on November 8, 1901.

He was one of the pioneer names in Armenian romantic poetry and his works, written between 1840 and 1852, were collected in five volumes published in 1857-1858. Most of those poems, however, were written in classical Armenian (krapar) and remained inaccessible for the general public. He became celebrated for a small collection of works written in modern Armenian (ashkharhapar) between 1847 and 1850.

His main contribution to Armenian culture was his important scholarly work. He executed a methodical plan of collecting information and systematically reconstructing Armenian antiquity. His poems and his works made him a household name. He never visited Armenia, but his extensive research was famous for its geographical accuracy. He wrote about Armenian ancient and medieval history, literature, mythology, and other issues. Some of his most important works include “Shirak,” “Sisakan,” “Sisuan,” “Ayrarat,” “Nerses Shnorhali and His Family,” “Ancient Belief or Armenian Pagan Religions,” “Armenia and Venice."