The Amirdôl monastery

Dedicated to Saint John the Baptist (Surp Hovhannes Mgrdich), the Amirdôl monastery stood in the Pagesh [Bitlis] district of the same name at 38°24' N and 42° 05' E, nestled in a small valley at the southwest end of the city, on the shore of the Khosterov River, or Khosrovu Ked [Amrdol Çay, Khosrov Çay]. This dedication has inclined some to think that Amirdôl was a deformed version of Amlorti, “Son of the barren woman”, an expression referring to the Gospel story of the birth of John the Baptist. But written Amirdawl as well, Amirdôl may be merely a variant of the name Amirdovlat‘. An Amirdôl, brother of a rich merchant of Arjesh [Erciş], khoja T‘ajadin, is attested between 1437 and 1455. At this date a copyist made a set of Gospels for him at the behest of Abbot Lazarus (Ghazar), precisely “at the monastery of Pagesh also known as Amirdôl”. The monastery had two churches at the time: Saint John and Holy Zion. Arakel of Pagesh (Arakel Paghishetsi), who would later be made abbot of the monastery of the Great Walnut Trees in Ergan [Ergen, Geçimli] (n° 62), and the famous bishop of Amida (Dikranaguerd [Diyarbakır]) Mgrdich Naghash (see n° 67), appear to have spent time there in the 15^th century.

Saint John of Amirdôl is actually one of four monasteries in Pagesh or its immediate vicinity, each of which in turn provided the town with a brilliant center of learning commonly known by historiographers as the Pagesh School. After the ravages visited on the region by Shah Ismail at the start of the 16^th century, in particular between 1511 and 1513, it was finally absorbed into the Ottoman Empire. At this time, it was the monastery of the Holy Mother of God Khntragadar (“Who answers prayers”) that held pride of place and which would continue to occupy the forefront until the end of the century. At the same time, work on manuscripts resumed at Amirdôl, a revival to which Basil of Aghpag (Parsegh Aghpaguetsi, † 1615), himself a product of the school of the Holy Mother of God, would give a crucial impetus by entirely renovating the convent and encouraging the teaching of secular disciplines. In the 1640s, the tradition would be temporarily handed over to the monastery of Komk‘ (Komots Vank‘), seat of the archbishopric, whose occupant Mesrob of Pagesh (Mesrob Paghishetsi) would complete restoration of the church in 1681, before the Amirdôl monastery once again took the lead, under the direction of the Church doctor Khachadur of Paghesh (Khachadur Paghishetsi, † 1662), known as “the Great”, and his student and successor Vartan of Paghesh (Vartan Paghishetsi, 1620?-1704).

Abbot Vartan of Paghesh, who was born in Khoghtz [ *** ], was one of the leading figures of the 17^th-century Armenian renaissance and the most illustrious exponent of the Paghesh School, to which he would assign an imperious mission that went beyond study and training, namely to salvage the ancient writings. Initially associated with the project were Archbishop Mesrob, who endowed Vartan with the rank of Doctor, and another of Mesrob’s disciples, David of Paghesh (Tavit‘ Paghishetsi, † 1673), who resided at the Holy Mother of God monastery. We find all three, in 1669 and 1673, on the island of Lim, renowned as a center for the conservation of manuscripts (n° 3). At Amirdôl, where he would undertake more work, notably restoring the church of Saint John in 1692-1694 with the help of Baron Khachamanug, Vartan of Pagesh had numerous degraded manuscripts recopied or completed. For this, he retained the services of the copyist and binder Sahag of Van (Sahag Vanetsi), who would restore 74 old volumes at Amirdôl; in particular, he located, gathered and reproduced the rare texts, especially neglected works of historians, to which he devoted an entirely new degree of attention. His catalogue of the monastery’s didactic works lists 194 volumes or groups of volumes – both manuscripts and printed works. In the last quarter of the 17^th century, the Paghesh School was represented by the monastic university of Amirdôl: one colophon reports in 1676 a community membership of 94, of whom 40 were novices.

In 1670-1671, Vartan of Paghesh was called to the monastery of the Holy Apostles in Moush [Muş], where he set the finances in order, undertook renovations and, once again, entrusted Sahag of Van with the restoration of the monastery’s old manuscripts (see n° 54). In 1676, he was the nuncio of the catholicosate of Edchmiadzin in Darôn – in the region of Moush – and in 1678 we find him as nuncio of the patriarchate of Jerusalem in New Julfa (Isfahan). If the Paghesh School illustrates a movement whose beginning undeniably dates back to the first quarter of the 16^th century, its later reputation, at a time when the Chenkush [Çüngüş] School was in decline (see n° 79), is owed largely to the personality of Vartan of Paghesh; its renown would be perpetuated by the activity of a large number of his students, who would disperse throughout the Armenian world and, for the most part, become in turn erudite teachers and administrators. Their longtime leader, Abraham of Amida (Apraham Amt‘etsi, † 1681), who accompanied Vartan on most of his missions, did not survive him, though some of his younger students would continue elsewhere the work begun at Amirdôl. Having been made abbot of the Holy Precursor of Moush (n° 53) in 1704, Gregory of Shirwan (Krikor Shirwantsi, a canton to the south of Paghesh) would be appointed patriarch of Jerusalem some ten years later and take the name Gregory VII (known as Shëght‘ayaguir the “chained”, 1715-1749); John the Little (Hovhannes Golod), who had followed Gregory to the Holy Precursor, would become patriarch of Constantinople (1715-1741). Markare of Erzrum [Erzurum] (Markare Arzrumtsi) and Garabed of Sbarguerd [***] (Garabed Sbarguerdtsi) would successively head the Red Convent of Hintzk‘ (n° 37). Sarkis of Amida (Sarkis Amt‘etsi) was first made abbot of the monastery of Saint Conon of Seghert [Siirt] (Surp Gononos) before undertaking the restoration of the monastery of the Willows, or Saint John of Moush (n° 56), in 1707. Finally, Abraham of Kegh (the name of an Armenian canton to the east of Neperguerd [Mîyafarkîn, Silvan] (Apraham Keghetsi), nephew of Vartan of Pagesh, would be appointed to a series of offices: abbot of the Holy Apostles in 1708 and of the Holy Precursor in 1716, both in Moush, before being elevated to the dignity of catholicos at Edchmiadzin as Abraham II (1730-1734).

If the Paghesh School fell into decline with the disappearance of Vartan, it was in the monastery of Amirdôl, which preserved its renown, that, around the turn of the 19^th century, the seat of the archbishop of Paghesh was finally established. As titular archbishop of the see in 1825-1850, Vartan, whose designs on Saint Daniel of Gop‘ [Bulanık] (n° 58) had to be contained by the patriarch of Constantinople, was most certainly abbot of Amirdôl. However, this seat would later be established in the church of Saint Cyriacus, or of the Holy Sign, “at the Red Stone” (see n° 18), which had been restored in 1844, while the monastery church of Saint John would serve as the parish church for the district of Amirdôl. In the meantime, a few years before 1878, the Holy Zion church, which stood north of the monastery wall, was confiscated and turned into a mosque. The monastery was ransacked in the massacres of 1894-1896; but in 1900, nearly one hundred manuscripts were still kept there. At the same period, Father Ezras, elected prior of Paghesh’s four monasteries – Amirdôl, the Holy Mother of God, Komk‘ and Avekh – found himself charged by the patriarchate of Constantinople with collecting the revenues of the four establishments in view of maintaining them durably and financing a joint school or orphanage.

The Amirdôl monastery included:

• The church of Saint John, also dedicated to the Holy Mother of God and to Saint Stephen, in all likelihood a cross-in-square with three apses and an octagonal drum with pyramid, resting on two rows of three piers, built at the beginning of the 17^th century on the site of a church of the same name already attested in 1450. The church was completely restored in 1692-1694 and its drum renovated in 1850. It held, among others, the tombs of the great abbots Basil († 1615) and Vartan († 1704), placed in front of the choir, and in the northwest corner, the tomb of the abbot Zacharius (Zak‘aria, † 1797).

• North of the church of Saint John and its outbuildings was the church of Holy Zion, with a drum and dome, attested in 1450, confiscated in 1860-1870 and immediately turned into a mosque.

• A courtyard wall, against which once stood stood outbuildings, rebuilt at the start of the 17^th century.

• A cemetery, outside the walls to the northwest.

• An icehouse.

• A mill installed southwest of the monastery on a branch of the Khosrov River leading upstream to the monastery of Komk‘.

The monastery owned land and properties in town.

Confiscated after the Great War, the Amirdôl monastery was completely destroyed.