Mekhitarist Congregation

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The collection of Armenian manuscripts of the Mekhitarist Congregation of Vienna can be considered one of the richest of its kind in the world. These valuable manuscripts are an excellent example of the great cultural achievement of the Armenian people and of eastern Christianity. Although many of the manuscripts are known to a handful of specialists, the public remains generally unaware of them. To celebrate the 300th anniversary of the birth of the eminent founder of the order, Mekhitar of Sebastia, the Mekhitarist Congregation of Vienna decided to publish a generously illustrated book, accompanied by a brief narrative text, thus fulfilling their founder's wish to preserve and cultivate Armenian art and literature. As per the wish of the Mekhitarist Congregation, we have written the requisite catalogue, since we believe that the manuscript offers a rare example of a medieval art form preserved intact in its entirety.

 

We first examined the nearly 2000 manuscripts of the collection and photographed almost all of the illuminated ones. We then chose for publication forty of the most valuable works and produced 250 slides with a Linhof Technica 70 on Agfa 50 S professional film. The present catalogue is therefore not a cross-section of the entire collection, but rather a selection of the most important illuminated codices. Since these are photographic reproductions of the original manuscripts, by and large unknown to the general public, the non-illuminated manuscripts were left out from the catalogue, even though some were epigraphically interesting. Within these limitations, we have catalogued a representative cross-section of the most valuable manuscripts from an artistic point of view.

 

Our original research was focused on Gospel Book 242 and the group of Cilician manuscripts. The Gospels belong to the richly illustrated manuscripts of the Palaeological Era. They are the results of joint efforts between Armenian and Greek artists, the product of a propitious symbiosis between two cultures. The illuminations of the Cilician manuscripts of the 13th century are distinguished by their refined and courtly elegance from the work of peripheral areas of artistic activity. Though still very much entrenched in tradition, they consciously remain aloof from the Hellenistic Renaissance of the Byzantine court of the Palaeologists, and should to be understood on their own artistic terms in which a certain French influence can be detected. This exuberant activity in Cilicia ended abruptly with the fall of the Christian Empire of the Near East. We would like to thank heartily the Mekhitarist Congregation for their readiness in granting permission to continue research on Codices 242 and on 543 and those of the Cilician group 278, 833, 53, and 456, I, 1, which will be separately published.

 

Dashian was the first scholar who began cataloguing the manuscripts. In 1895, he published a description of the first 500 codices. In 1964 P. H. Oskian completed the cataloging of the remaining 500 codices. A third volume is presently in preparation. All due respect must be paid to Dashian's achievement, which entailed extensive research into peripheral areas, such as paleography, liturgy, and the old Alexander Romances. The catalogue was conceived according to scholarly standards of the 19th century and did not consider aspects, which would automatically be treated today. With considerable trial and tribulation, Dashian finished the catalogue, and established a system used subsequently for many descriptive Armenian manuscripts catalogues especially those of Eastern libraries. Well aware that his study was valuable to more than just Armenian specialists, Dashian had it partially translated into German. Unfortunately, the German rendition is replete with errors and mistranslation. All subsequent catalogues of the series were written only in Armenian. We were therefore forced to go back and start anew, examining the codices in the original, in order to satisfy our own scholarly concerns, including the decorative ensemble of each codex, typical systems of illumination, and characteristics specifically Armenian. The codicological section of the German edition was based, as nearly as was possible, on the system of the Viennese School of Byzantine Studies developed by Herbert Hunger for cataloguing the Greek manuscripts of the Austrian National Library.

 

The limitations imposed by an abridged translation necessitated the substantial condensation of material, which had previously been condensed to the utmost in the original German version. This process has somewhat overshadowed a comprehensive overview, and necessarily has led to shifts of emphasis among the articles. The aim of the short English version is to supply the reader, as briefly as possible, with a picture of the decorative ensemble of a given manuscript. Innumerable problems, which are discussed in the original volume, could not unfortunately be taken up here. Lack of space also prevented all individual discussion of the reproductions. The interested reader is therefore referred to the scholarly German edition, whenever a more detailed treatment of a particular theme or manuscript is desired. We have attempted to emphasize only the most essential characteristics of the manuscripts and to roughly sketch, where appropriate, the relationships among them. An orientation will be established, which should enhance the enjoyment of the splendid color reproductions.

 

We would like to thank at this time all those who participated in the publication, of this work in particular, His Grace, the most Reverend Abbot General P. Gregoris Joseph Manian for his help in translating difficult Armenian texts. We also thank Eva Zimmermann for her assistance on the codicological sections of the German version, to P. Petrus Ter-Poghossian who has taken charge of the Armenian translation, and lastly to Evelyn Kain, who is responsible for the present volume.

 

 

Armenian Manuscripts

The Mkhitarist Library in Viena

http://home.earthlink.net/~berjam/manuscript/start.htm

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Mechitarists

Armenian Benedictines, founded by Mechitar in 1712. In its inception the order was looked upon merely as an attempted reform of Eastern monachism. P. Filippo Bonanni, S.J., writes at Rome, in 1712 when the order received its approval, of the arrival of P. Elias Martyr and P. Joannes Simon, two Armenian monks sent by Mechitar to Pope Clement XI to offer His Holiness the most humble subjection of himself and convent (Ut ei se cum suis religiosis humillime subjiceret). There is no mention, at the moment, of the Benedictine rule. The monks, such as St. Anthony instituted in Egypt (quos St. Antonius in Aegypto instituerat), have begun a foundation in Modon with Mechitar (Mochtàr) as abbot.

 

After two years' noviceship, they take the usual vows, with a fourth in addition — "to give obedience to the preceptor or master deputed by their superior to teach them the dogmas of the Catholic Faith". Many of them vow themselves also to missionary work in Armenia, Persia, and Turkey, where they live on alms and wear as a badge, beneath the tunic, a cross of red cloth, on which are certain letters signifying their desire to shed their blood for the Catholic Faith. They promise on oath to work together in harmony so that they may the better win the schismatics back to God. They elect an abbot for life, who has the power to dismiss summarily any of his monks who should prove disorderly. They wear the beard, Oriental fashion, and have a black habit — tunic, cloak and hood. In the engraving attached to the description, the Mechitarist would be undistinguishable from a regular hermit of St. Augustine, except for his beard. When however, Pope Clement XI gave them his approval, it was as monks under the rule of St. Benedict, and he appointed Mechitar the first abbot. This was a great innovation; nothing less than the introduction of Western monasticism into the East. There, up to this time a monk undertook no duties but to fill his place in the monastery. He admitted no vocation but to save his soul in the cloister. He had, in theory, at least, broken off all relations with the outside world. He had no idea of making himself useful to mankind, or of any good works whatsoever save his choir duties, his prayers, his fastings, and the monastic observance. He belonged to no religious order but was simply a monk. Now, as a Benedictine, he would be expected to devote himself to some useful work and take some thought of his neighbour. It is clear, from P. Bonanni's description, that Mechitar and his monks wished this change and had already adopted the Western idea of the monk's vocation. The adoption of the Benedictine rule, therefore, was merely a recognition of their desire to devote themselves to apostolic work among their schismatic brethren, to instruct their ignorance, excite their devotion and bring them back into the communion of the one true Catholic and Apostolic Church. And it was also a security that they would not afterwards lapse into the apathy and inactivity associated in the Eastern mind with the life of the cloister. It is not quite accurate to speak of them as a Benedictine "Congregation", though it is their customary description. They are a new "Order" of monks living under the rule of St. Benedict, as distinct from the parent order as the Cistercians, Camaldolese, Silvestrines, or Olivetans. Hence we do not find them classed among the numerous congregations of the Benedictine order.

 

Missionaries, writers, and educationists, devoted to the service of their Armenian brethren wherever they might be found, such were and are these Benedictines of the Eastern Church. Their subjects usually enter the convent at an early age, eight or nine years old, receive in it their elementary schooling, spend about nine years in philosophical and theological study, at the canonical age of twenty-five, if sufficiently prepared, are ordained priests by their bishop-abbot, and are then employed by him in the various enterprises of the order. First, there is the work of the mission — not the conversion of the heathen, but priestly ministry to the Armenian communities settled in most of the commercial centres of Europe. With this is joined, where needed and possible, the apostolate of union with Rome. Next there is the education of the Armenian youth and, associated with this, the preparation and publication of good and useful Armenian literature.

 

The parent abbey is that of St. Lazzaro at Venice; next in importance is that at Vienna, founded in 1810; there is a large convent and college for lay-students at Padua, the legacy of a pious Armenian who died at Madras; in the year 1846 another rich benefactor, Samuel Morin, founded a similar establishment at Paris. Other houses are in Austria-Hungary, Russia, Persia and Turkey — fourteen in all, according to the latest statistics, with one hundred and fifty-two monks, the majority of whom are priests. Not a great development for an order two hundred years old; but its extension is necessarily restricted because of its exclusive devotion to persons and things Armenian. Amongst their countrymen the influence of the monks has been not only directive in the way of holiness and true service to God and His Church, but creative of a wholesome national ambition and self-respect. Apostles of culture and progress, they may be said, with strict justice, to have preserved from degradation and neglect the language and literature of their country, and in so doing, have been the saviours of the Armenian race. Individually, the monks are distinguished by their linguistic accomplishments, and the Vienna establishment has attracted attention by the institution of a Literary Academy, which confers honorary membership without regard to race or religion.

 

In every one of their many undertakings their founder, Mechitar, personally showed them the way. To him they owe the initiative in the study of the Armenian writings of the fourth and fifth centuries, which has resulted in the development and adoption of a literary 1anguage, nearly as distinct from the vulgar tongue as Latin is from Italian. Thus the modem Armenian remains in touch with a distinguished and inspiring past, and has at his service a rich and important literature which otherwise would have been left, unknown or unheeded, to decay. Mechitar, with his Armenian "Imitation" and "Bible", began that series of translations of great books, continued unceasingly during two centuries, and ranging from the early Fathers of the Church and the works of St. Thomas of Aquin (one of their first labours) to Homer and Virgil and the best known poets and historians of later days.

 

At one period, in connexion with their Vienna house, there existed an association for the propagation of good books, which is said to have distributed nearly a million volumes, and printed and published six new works each year. To him also they owe the guidance of their first steps in exegesis — the branch of learning in which they have won most distinction — and the kindred studies of the Liturgy and the religious history of their country. At S. Lazzara he founded the printing press from which the most notable of their productions have been issued, and commenced there the collection of Armenian manuscripts for which their library has become famous. To any but members of the order the history of the Mechitarists has been uneventful, because of the quiet, untiring plodding along ancient, traditional paths, and the admirable fidelity to the spirit and ideals of their founder (see MECHITAR).

 

It has been principally by means of the Mechitarists' innumerable periodicals, pious manuals, Bibles, maps, engravings, dictionaries, histories, geographies and other contributions to educational and popular literature, that they have done good service to the Armenian Church and nation. Following are the most valuable of their contributions to the common cause of learning. First, there is the recovery, in ancient Armenian translations, of some lost works of the Fathers of the Church. Among them may be noted "Letters (thirteen) of St. Ignatius of Antioch" and a fuller and more authentic "History of the Martyrdom of St. Ignatius"; some works of St. Ephrem the Syrian, notably a sort of "Harmony of the Gospels" and a "Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul"; an exceptionally valuable edition of "Eusebius's History". The publication of these works is due to the famous Mechitarist Dom J. B. Aucher, who was assisted in the last of them by Cardinal Mai. To Aucher also we are indebted for a German translation of the "Armenian Missal" Tübingen, 1845) and "Dom Johannis philosophi Ozniensis Armeniorum Catholici (A. D., 718) Opera" (Venice, 1534). Two original historical works may also be noted: "The History of Armenia", by P. Michel Tschamtschenanz (1784-6) and the "Quadro della storia letteraria di Armenia" by Mgr. Pl. Sukias Somal (Venice, 1829).

 

TSCHAMTSCHENANZ, Compendiose notizie sulla congregazione dei monachi Armeni Mechitaristici (Venice, 1819) NEUMANN, Essai d'une histoire de la Littérature arménienne (Leipzig, 1836); KALEMKIAR, Une esquisse de l'activité littéraire-typographique de la congrégation méchitariste à Vienne; GOSCHLER, Dictionnaire encyclopédique de la Théol. Cathol., XIV, Art. Mechitaristes.

 

J. C. ALMOND.

Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter

Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume X

Copyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton Company

Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight

Nihil Obstat, October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor

Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10102b.htm

[MJ]

PRESS RELEASE

Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services, March 26, 2001

Address: Holy Etchiamdzin, Republic of Armenia

Tel.: (00 374 1) 28 51 52

Fax: (00 374 1) 151 624

E-Mail: holysee@etchmiadzin.am

 

His Holiness Karekin II: "Holy Etchmiadzin has Inspired

and Directed the Way of Mekhitarian Fathers' Mission"

 

300th Anniversary of Mekhitarian Congregation's Establishment

Celebrated in the Hall of the Catholicosal Residence

 

On March 24 a festive ceremony, dedicated to the 300th Anniversary of

Mekhitarian Congregation's establishment, was held in the hall of the

Catholicosal Residence (Veharan). His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch

and Catholicos of All Armenians, presided over the ceremony.

 

Together with the clergy of Holy Etchmiadzin members of Mekhitarian

Congregation, Abp. Nerses Nersisian, Head of the Armenian Catholic

community, intellectuals, guests attended the ceremony.

 

As His Holiness noted, the aim of the festive ceremony was not the

summarizing of Mekhitarian Fathers' legacy, but it was a nice opportunity to

bow and pay tribute of respect to the 300 years' work and activity of the

Mekhitarian Congregation.

 

"Mhkitarian Fathers' love towards the Church and patriotic spirit, which has

never decreased and hesitated, was nourished from the same source, from

which our ancestors living and creating in the Motherland received strength.

The light of Illuminator's lantern has gleamed in their souls. Holy

Etchmiadzin has inspired and directed the way of their mission. I am sure

that today Mekhitarian Fathers' souls are rejoicing in the sky, as their

vision has turn to reality. Today, at the Catholicosate of All Armenians,

together with their spiritual brothers - the members of the Congregation of

the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Mhkitarian Fathers evaluate our great

values of the past," said His Holiness.

 

The speakers, referring the centuries-old work and activity of the

Congregation, once more stated that being far away, Mekhitarian Congregation

has lived with the vision of the Motherland, always preserving their

Armenian spirit, always remaining Armenian in divine services and rites.

 

Expressing his gratitude to His Holiness. Fr. Elia Kilaghbian, the General

Abbot of the Mekhitarian Congregation, considered the festive ceremony,

organized in the Catholicosal residence, a great honor. He expressed hope

that under the auspices of Holy Etchmiadzin the Congregation will manage to

support the Motherland and the creation of the Armenian nation's bright

future.

 

At the end of the ceremony His Holiness presented to the Members of

Mekhitarian congregartion the bas-relief of Holy Etchmiadzin.

 

Students of Kevorkian Theological Seminary and Vazkenian Semianry, as well

as the musicians and Ethnographic songs' company, presenting the Youth

Centers of Holy Etchmiadzin, welcomed the people in attendance by their

concert program.