The Red Convent of Hintzk‘, dedicated to the Holy Mother of God, is located north east of Garin/Erzurum in the upper western Euphrates Valley [Fırat] at the foot of Mounts K‘arwor [***] and Khatchap‘ayd [***], on an elevation overlooking the village of Hintzk‘ [Dumlu, Aydınlık] to the east, at 40°03’ N and 41°22’ E.
Founded in the first half of the 10th century by the monk Sergius (Sarkis), at the same time as several other famous establishments among which the monasteries of Movsissavank‘ (Saint George of Khoulé, n° 63) and Horomos (n° 82), the Red Convent is known above all as a convent of cenobites, among whose dependencies was a priory of nuns, the Desert of the Hripsimian Virgins, so named because tradition relates that the community of Holy Women stayed in the area at the end of the 3rd century (see n° 29). Active until the 17th century, this desert lay in ruins in the 19th century. Mekhit‘ar of Sebastia (Mekhit‘ar Sepasdatsi), future founder of the Mekhitarist congregation established in the 18th century in Venice, taught at the Red Convent from 1697 to 1699, at the time of Bishop Markare. The convent’s courtyard wall and roofs were restored by the prior, Arak‘el (1719-1736), but the 1770 earthquake damaged them and in particular caused the church to collapse; the provincial authority opposed all attempts at restoration, which soon led to the community’s dispersal. It was only thirty years later that, with an authorization brought back from Constantinople, the church could be rebuilt and the monastery revived through the diligent efforts of its prior, Mgrditch. The red stones of the ruined church were re-utilized in the new building, and for the drum in particular. Originally from the Red Convent community, the 18th-century poet and singer Garabed Melikian, archbishop of Tiflis, called it a “holy temple all in red, praised for its beauty”. No doubt the abandonment of the Hripsimians’ priory must also be dated to 1770. In the 17th-18th centuries the convent was often used as a residence for the primates of Garin / Erzurum.
Cour intérieure (Épriguian, 1903-1905, 331)
The Red Convent of Hintzk‘ included the church of the Holy Mother of God, a cross-in-square with four square central pillars, a tall drum and a dome surmounted by a pyramid, entered on the west side by a flight of steps; a courtyard wall against which were built two stories of housing for pilgrims and monks, as well as the rest of the outbuildings; a courtyard fountain; a cemetery outside the walls that contained in particular the tomb of Prior Arak‘el († 1736). The monastery also possessed numerous lands and water mills, as well as the priory mentioned above.
Confiscated after the Great War, the Red Convent was dismantled. In the second part of the 20th century, Hintsk‘ and its vicinity remained a military zone. We know nothing of its present state.
Kossian, 1925-1926, I, 103-122. Oskian, 1951, 125-140. Outtier, Thierry, 1990, 711. Thierry, 2005, 41-42.