Holy Apostles or Saint Lazarus Monastery, or Monastery of the Holy Translators

The Holy or the Twelve Apostles monastery (Ergodasan Arak‘elots) received its name from a tradition attributing it with possession of relics of several of Christ’s Apostles. The same tradition holds its founder to be Saint Gregory the Illuminator, who is said to have given the monastery its first superior, Eliazar or Lazarus (Ghazar), brother of Zenop Klag, who himself is said to have been the first superior of the famous neighboring Holy Precursor monastery (n° 53): hence its second dedication. As for the Holy Translators, whose name is also borne by the monastery, these were the inventors of the Armenian alphabet – Saints Sahag and Mesrob – and their disciples, who in the 5^th century translated the Holy Scriptures and important Ancient works. A later tradition places several of them in the monastery cemetery.

The Holy Apostles monastery is located southeast of Moush [Muş] at nearly 1750 meters altitude, on the edge of the Sassun mountains – in the heart of Armenian Taurus – at the foot of Mount Dziringadar [Kızıl Ziyaret Tepesi]. It lies along a ledge bordered by the Klatzor ravine, at 38° 41’ N and 41° 31’ E. The region forms the Armenian canton of Darôn, which, in the Middle Ages, gave its name to a far-flung principality governed in turns by the Bagratid (Pakradouni) and the Mamigonian dynasties, known as the Taronid. The Armenian synaxarion notes the antiquity of this foundation, which is associated with the presence of the Holy Illuminator in a region that was to become the stronghold of his line, soon allied with that of the Mamigonian princes. The tombs in the Holy Apostles cemetery attributed to the martyred brothers Hamazasb and Sahag Ardzruni († 786), also represented in high relief on the south wall of the royal church of Aght‘amar (n° 17), attest to its ancient reputation. It is certain that, between the 11^th and the 13^th centuries, the monastery enjoyed a surge of growth; the philosopher-monk, Paul of Darôn (Bôghos Darônatsi, † 1123), distinguished himself there under the reign of Prince Tchordwanel Mamigonian, whose ancestor Tchordwanel III had in fact willed his natal village, Pertag [Tekyol], to the Holy Apostles church. Most of the monuments in the cemetery known as that of “the Translators” date from the same period. One of these, raised in memory of two bishops, mentions the renovation of the site. The Saint Thaddeus church, which stands some 300 m outside the walls to the east, probably dates from the same years.

Dedicated to the Apostles, to the Mother of God and to the Illuminator, the main church was no doubt built in the 10^th century against an earlier chapel. In 1134, it was given carved double doors made of walnut, regarded as one of its treasures: spared in 1915, the door is now conserved in the Yerevan Museum of History. The narthex of Saint Gregory’s, which it separated from the church, was constructed or restored in 1204 under Abbot Isaiah (Essayi), who in 1205 also consolidated the church’s cap. In the same year, the monastery added its most famous piece to the treasury, the collection of homilies known as the “Moush homiliary”, purchased in Khlat‘ [Ahlat] from a qadi of Papert [Bayburt], who had confiscated it from its sponsor and owner. The convent of the Miracles in Ardzgué [Adilcevaz] (n° 8) had formerly tried in vain to collect funds to pay the ransom. This work, weighing 27.5 kg in its present state, is both one of the biggest manuscripts in the world and the biggest Armenian manuscript; it was produced between 1200 and 1202 in the Avak Vank‘ (n° 44) workshop on Mount Sebuh [Kara Dağ]. It is in these pages that Tchordwanel Mamigonian’s will was recopied. The salvaging of this venerated work, which had been conserved for seven hundred and ten years within the walls of the Holy Apostles, was the work of a few women who, having escaped the genocide, managed, despite its weight, to carry the manuscript into the Russian zone. In 1828 the homilary was divided and bound into two volumes. It is now one of the jewels in the collection of the Yerevan Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, also known as the “Madenataran”.

The Holy Apostles monastery, whose priors usually held the rank of archbishop, was a scriptorium throughout the 13^th-15^th centuries and held an important collection of manuscripts. The abbot, Father Paul († after 1451), took in the famous monk Thomas of Medzop‘ (T‘ovmas Medzop‘etsi) (see n° 9) in 1439 and supported his efforts to re-establish the seat of the Armenian catholicosate in Vagharshabad (Edchmiadzin) (see n° 7). In the 16^th century, Archbishop Thaddeus (T‘ateos) with the help of the copyist and poet Garabed of Pagesh [Bitlis] (Garabed Paghichetsi), who would soon succeed him, mobilized the important merchants of Amida (Dikranaguerd [Diyarbakır]) on behalf of the Holy Apostles, agreeing with them to extend the jurisdiction of the monastery to include their city. This enabled him in 1540 to complete the restoration of the dome and drum of the church of the Holy Apostles as well as that of the adjoining buildings, while in 1555 his successor restored or built the narthex. Additional renovation was carried out in the following century, in particular at the time of the prior, Basil (Parsegh), who built or raised the courtyard wall in the early 1620s, and of David (Tavit‘) during whose time Vartan of Pagesh [Bitlis] (Vartan Paghichetsi), the famous abbot of the Amirdol monastery (n° 59), summoned to help the monastic community, undertook in 1670 to rebuild the south slopes of the church of the Holy Apostles and to reconstruct against the south wall, perhaps on the foundations of the earlier oratory, the Saint Stephen church, which had lain in ruins since the time of Tamerlane. Vartan also encouraged writing and study: in particular he entrusted the copyist and binder, Sahag of Van (Sahag Vanetsi), with the restoration of some forty ancient manuscripts held in the Holy Apostles library.

Much later, in 1791, Prior John of Avran (Hovhannès Avrantsi) would provide the Saint Gregory narthex with a porch surmounted by a bell tower and rotunda. When his time came, Hovhannès [John] Der Simeonian (1816-1850) showed himself to be an active prior: in 1828, he restored the great homilary. The last superior of the Holy Apostles was the martyred Father Hovhannès Mouradian (1867-1915). He reorganized the manuscript library, and during his abbotship the Philotechnic Society (Arwesdasirats enguerout‘iun) of Constantinople opened a farm school in the outbuildings, which would quickly close again. After the 1895 massacres, in which the monastery was plundered, the farm school was replaced by an orphanage and a school for apprentices. Destruction of the monastery was begun as early as July 1915 by the Turkish army.

The Holy Apostles or Saint Lazarus monastery includes:

Plan (after M. Dupin)

• The Holy Apostles church (A), assigned to the 10^th century, a cross in square measuring some 12 m on a side with an octagonal drum and a pyramid. To the east, two lateral absidioles dedicated to Saints Mark and Luke, each of which is surmounted by a chamber, bracket the apse; a similar two-level arrangement is found on either side of the left-hand branch. The all-brick construction, with the exception of the stone slabs, has led experts to suppose a Byzantine influence. The stone-slab roofs and the drum of the church have been restored numerous times, in particular in 1205, 1540 and 1670. Frescoes were once visible in the interior.

• Extending from one end of the church and of the same size, the Saint Gregory narthex (B), probably founded in 1204 and rebuilt in 1555, resting on four free-standing columns delimiting a central cap and supported on eight engaged pillars.

• At the entrance to the narthex, a porch some 20 m² surmounted by a bell tower (C) with rotunda, built in 1791.

• The Saint George chapel (D), built against the north wall of the Holy Apostles.

• The Saint Stephen church (E), a mononave building with a transverse arch, approximately 12 × 7.5 m, built against the south wall of the main church and its narthex, rebuilt in 1670.

• A monastery wall, constructed in 1620, against which were built dwellings, the orphanage and the bursar’s office.

• The Saint Thaddeus church (F), which seems also to have answered to the name of the Holy Mother of God, built in the form of a cross some 9 × 7 m, with a drum and pyramid, set to the east of the main group of buildings and attributed to the beginning of the 12^th century.

• The graveyard known as the Translators cemetery, located outside the walls between the main complex and Saint Thaddeus, known for its nine large cross-stones and its funeral monuments built in memory of the learned monks and doctors, dated – from north to south – 1123, 1182, 1141, 1162, 1125 (in memory of the builder-bishops Lazarus and Stephen, Ghazar and Sdep‘anos), 1144 (in memory of the philosopher David the Invincible, Tavit‘ Anhaght‘ ), and once again 1144. One of the two other cross-stones is thought to have been erected in memory of Paul of Darôn († 1123). North of the cemetery lie the Ardzrunid martyrs.

Plan restitution

The domain of the Holy Apostles monastery is delineated in an ancient charter attributed to Saint Gregory the Illuminator; the text, which is believed to have been translated from the Greek by Tchordwanel III Mamigonian in 1079, is contained, together with the last will and testament of the latter, in the great homilary. In the 20^th century, the monastery’s jurisdiction extended north over the whole plain between the Meghraked [Karasu] River – a southern tributary of the eastern branch of the Euphrates, or Aradzani [Murad Çay] – and the city of Moush; to the south it encompassed a large part of the Sassun mountains. The monasteries once owned meadows, plow lands and orchards, a wood and mills, and a farm at Pertag. Another dependency of the Holy Apostles was the priory of Saint Peter, or the Apostle’s Finger (Surp Bedrossi Vank‘ or Madin Arakelo Vank‘ ), built on the massif at the foot of Mount Marat‘ouk [Komk’-Çalışlar köyü], an establishment which in turn had nearly two hundred localities under its jurisdiction as well as important properties extending to the vicinity of Dikranaguerd [Diyarbakır]. Finally, according to an incomplete inventory and despite the plundering, in 1914 the Holy Apostles monastery had a collection of 126 ancient manuscripts dating from 1157 to 1763. According to the same inventory, 27 more manuscripts, dating from 1255 to 1758 were conserved in the Saint Peter priory.

Occupied and sacked by the army during the genocide, the Holy Apostles monastery was subsequently left empty. All the outbuildings have disappeared. The main church, still standing in the early 1960s, has largely collapsed today after having been dynamited, as have the porch-bell tower, of which only a few remains subsist, the Saint Stephen church and the Saint George chapel. As for the Saint George narthex, nothing remains. In the cemetery, all the 12^th-century cross-stones have disappeared. Already damaged in the 1970s, the Saint Thaddeus church, riddled with holes and missing its dome, is on its last legs. Aside from the great homilary and a few rare exceptions, all the ancient manuscripts of the Holy Apostles and Saint Peter’s have been destroyed.