Monastery of the Holy Mother of God Overlooking the River

Built on the western slope of Mount Arek‘n, or Arek‘ [Köşmür Dağı], above the village of the same name [Eskikavak], at nearly 2000 m altitude, the monastery of the Holy Mother of God “Overlooking the River” stands to the east of the city of Gueghi, or K‘ëghi [Kiğı], at 39° 16’ N and 40° 24’ E, on the uplands bordering the eastern shore of the Kayl River [Peri Suyu]. It is turned to face its tributary, the Ôrôr [***] River, and overlooks its valley. It is also called Partzr Asdwadzadzin (Our Lady On High), because of its situation. Together with the monastery of the Holy Precursor at K‘ëghi (Surp Garabed) located nearby to the northwest, it is one of the two most important monasteries in the region, which comprises the canton and diocese of Khortziank‘.

The Holy Mother of God can be identified to a fair degree of certainty with a monastery of the same name in the canton of Khortziank‘ mentioned in a text from 1364, where it is termed a “desert”. Like all the monasteries in the canton, which was an archbishopric in the 15^th-16^th centuries, this one was long under the authority of the Holy Precursor monastery in Moush (n° 53). After the ravages caused by the invasion of Shah Abbas I, it fell to the primate Mardiros of Darôn (Mardiros Darôntsi, 1600-1627), member of the Holy Precursor congregation in Moush, to restore in 1612 the two main monasteries of Khortziank‘ and to reestablish working scriptoria there. Although the canton ceased to be a dependency of the Moush monastery in 1767, it would be the lot of a second Mardiros, known as Bulbul (“nightingale” in Persian and Turkish: he was a musician, 1795-1815), a primate from the same congregation, to conduct new work on the two establishments, which went on until 1808. From 1808 to 1815, the monastery of the Holy Mother of God served as the residence of the primate of Khortziank‘. The primates would subsequently return to the Holy Precursor of K‘ëghi, which had been their traditional seat, and then to the city. The ministry of Father Bsag Der Khorenian, from 1907 to 1912, was of well-known benefit to the diocese as a whole (he was later transferred to Kharpert, see n^os 63 and 64). The last archbishop of the diocese and responsible for the Khortziank‘ monasteries was Father Kegham Tevekelian, martyred in 1915.

The monastery of the Holy Mother of God “Overlooking the River” includes:

• (A) The church of the Holy Mother of God, a large basilica measuring approximately 17.4 × 15.4 m, with three naves and three equal bays, and a pitched roof supported on four central columns and ten engaged pillars.

• (B) Extending to the west, a narthex 7.4 × 15.4 m with a door opening to the south.

• (C) A sacristy measuring 7 × 7.6 meters built against the south wall of the church, level with the apsidial bloc and the first bay.

• (D) courtyard wall against the left side of which dwellings were built.

Confiscated after the Great War, the Holy Mother of God Overlooking the River was left empty. At the end of the 1980s, the church was standing, but the narthex and sacristy had largely collapsed, as had the dwellings. The courtyard wall can still be seen.