Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VI. Across the Arax plain and in Erivan
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ACROSS THE ARAK PLAIN AND IN ERIVAN 147
country. His court included twelve bishops, besides monks,
priests, and retainers. This arrangement, by which a patriarch
or bishop has his palace next to the cathedral and within the
same walls, is quite common ; it is found at Echmiadzin and
several other places in Armenia, and may be compared with
the Vatican and St. Peter’s at Rome. The Katholikos had
another palace besides, at Ashtishat (near Mush).
An Armenian writer named Sebeos, who was a contempo
rary of the Katholikos Nerses 111 Shinogh, says in his history
of the Emperor Heraklius : "At this time (a.d. 652) the
Armenian Katholikos Nerses formed the project of building
himself a residence near the holy church in the city of Vaghar
shapat, on the road where tradition relates that King Trdat
went to meet St. Gregory. He also built a church there,
dedicated to the angelic hosts of heaven who appeared to
St. Gregory in a dream. He had the church built with high
walls and constructed it in all respects wonderfully, making
it worthy of the divine beings to whose glory it was dedicated.
He brought water thither from the river (i.e. the Kassagh),
made all the stony land fruitful, planted vineyards and orchards,
and surrounded the dwelling-place with a high and handsome
wall, to the glory of God."
It is related of the Katholikos that he nourished strong
Byzantine sympathies, and that when Constans II (641-668)
tried, in 652, in the cathedral at Dvin (then the capital of
Armenia), to induce the Armenians to adopt the creed of the
Council of Chalcedon, he partook of the Eucharist together
with the emperor. On this account he incurred the hatred
of the Armenians as being a heretic. He therefore went with
the emperor to Constantinople, but subsequently returned to
his home at Taik, where he lived until his bitterest opponent,
Theodore Rshtuni, died in 654. After six years’ persecution
he returned to his Katholikate, which he strengthened, and
set about finishing his church.
In view of all this one would expect the church to be
strongly influenced by Byzantine architectrure ; nevertheless,
this does not seem to be the case. It must be remembered that
at that time there was a strong national and anti-Greek move
ment in Armenia, and the builder of this church evidently
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