Mechitarists

Mechitarists, a congregation of Armenian Christians who entered into communion with the Church of Rome, when Clement XI. was pope, in 1712. They derive their name from Mechitar (i.e. the Comforter) da Petro (1676-1749), who in 1701 founded at Constantinople a religious society for raising the intellectual and spiritual condition of his countrymen, and for the purpose of diffusing a knowledge of the old Armenian language and literature. Two years later, however, the sectarian jealousy of the Armenian patriarch in Constantinople led to their removal to the Morea, and thence, on the conquest of that portion of Greece by the Turks in 1715, to Venice, which in 1717 granted them the island of San Lazzaro. Their most useful occupation is printing the classic writings of Armenian literature, as well as valuable translations of works by Ephraem Syrus, Philo, Eusebius, and other writers, the originals being lost. At San Lazzaro they possess a large and valuable library of oriental works, and at Vienna (since 1810) an academy, with a printing-office, &c., to which non-Armenians are admitted. See Langlois, Le Convent Arménien de Saint-Lazare de Venise (1863).