Eusebius, one of the primary contemporary writers on early Christianity, relates the unusual tale of King Abgar of Edessa, who wrote to Jesus Christ asking him to cure him of...
Eusebius, one of the primary contemporary writers on early Christianity, relates the unusual tale of King Abgar of Edessa, who wrote to Jesus Christ asking him to cure him of his leprosy. Abgar received a reply declining is invitation, but promising to send one of his disciples. Eventually, Thaddeus of Edessa (known in the Western tradition as Jude the Apostle), came to the city, bearing words and, according to some versions, an image of Christ miraculously projected onto a cloth, with which he healed the King. Impressed with the efficacy of Jesus’ miracle, the King invited Thaddeus to proselytise not just in Edessa, but throughout Armenia. Thus began, according to some traditions, the Armenian Apostolic Church, which thereby stakes a claim as being not only the oldest of the Christian Churches, but also that the only one to have been formed during Jesus’ lifetime. The early days were, alas, somewhat violent. The first native Armenian to be converted was King Sanatruk’s daughter; she was martyred alongside Thaddeus, when Sanatruk turned against his newly-converted daughter. A second apostle, Bartholomew, came to Armenia in the years afterwards, bringing with him a miraculous portrait of the Virgin Mary, which he placed in a nunnery he founded in a temple of the native Armenian goddess Anahit. Bartholomew then, perhaps foolhardily, converted a sister of King Sanatruk, who Sanatruk duly murdered alongside Bartholomew in what is sometimes considered one of the most brutal martyrdoms in the Christian tradition, either beaten and drowned, crucified upside-down, or skinned alive and beheaded. Fortunately, both Bartholomew and Thaddeus had ordained bishops before their martyrdoms, and therefore the Armenian Apostolic Church continued. Persecution of Armenian Christians continued under Kings Axidares, Khosrov I, and Tiridates III, before Tiridates was converted to Christianity by the first Primate of the Armenian Church, Gregory the Illuminator, in AD 301. Thereafter, Armenia became the first nation in history to make Christianity its state religion.
The Armenian year is constructed between five major Christian festival: Christmas, Easter, Transfiguration (Varvatar), the Assumption of the Holy Mother of God (Soorp Asdvadzadzin), and the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. These major festivals (daghavars) are moments of celebration, at the end of a week of fasting, but are followed immediately by memorial days (merelotz) for the commemoration of the dead. The importance of these events to the Armenian calendar was such that the creation of calendars recording both these major festivals and the hundreds of minor festivals between them was essential to the good functioning of both church and state. Additionally, it was vital to know on which date the ‘moveable festivals’, - Easter, which is celebrated on the first Sunday following the primary full moon after the Spring Equinox, Vartavar, which is celebrated on the fourteenth Sunday after Easter, and Sorp Asdvadzadzin, which occurs on the Sunday nearest to the Fifteenth of August – would fall. ‘Perpetual Calendars’ (tanatsoyts) were one solution to this problem. Perpetual calendars are valid for multiple years, which utilise mathematical formulae far beyond the scope of ordinary folk in past centuries. Perpetual calendars thus ensured that even those outside of the Church fraternity could observe major festivals correctly. The tradition of perpetual calendars began in Armenia around the year AD 352, when tables compiled by Andreas of Byzantium were introduced to determine the religious holidays. Those tables were exhausted on 11 July of AD 552, when the first native Armenian perpetual calendars were introduced.
This splendid tanatsovts consists of 177 inscribed leaves, each written in small, neat, bolorgir (Armenian cursive), in single columns, with twenty-one lines to the page. Sandwiched between sumptuous covers of dark brown goatskin, with striped linen doublures. The front cover, with an image of a crucifix, with an inscription which reads ‘This is in memory of Minas and his parents, 1148’, referring to the Armenian calendar which began in the year AD 552. Thereby, we can determine that the date of this tanatsovts is AD 1698. According to the colophon, and to several inscriptions inside, Minas requested the copying of the manuscript for his own enjoyment in what is now the city of Isfahan, in Iran. The colophon indicates that this text was copied by the scribe Ghazar khahanay, who is also known from another document from AD 1660 as another scribe’s ‘father, who tought him the art of copying’ (Hakobyan, V. (1978) Hayeren ieragreeri XVII dori guishatakaranner (1621 – 1640). Vol. III. Erevan: nr. 1450, p. 958). The colophon records that the manuscript was copied in city of New Julfa, a re-founding of the ancient city of Julfa, which is now in the territory of Iran. New Julfa was a significant Armenian city, which still has one of the largest Armenian expatriate populations in the world. It was the centre of a trade network which stretched from Amsterdam to Manila, with outposts in London and Cadiz, and whose merchants sometimes travelled across the ocean to Mexico. Our text was copied in the Holy Saviour Cathedral, whose construction began around AD 1606, and which was finally completed in AD 1664, with elaborately decorated interiors which belie its rather plain exterior. This text occurred at a tumultuous time for the Armenian Church, however. The colophon mentions the election of the new supreme head of the Church, Bisoph Setphanos, who reigned for merely a year before he was captured, tortured and imprisoned. He died some seven months before our text was copied, and his inclusion may indicate something of the political loyalties of its patron.
The calendar itself lists all of the feasts of the Armenian Apostolic Church as celebrated in the period, giving the order of the lections, hymns, prayers and other liturgical features. The year is divided into seven sections, beginning with the Theophany of Christ, and going through Palm Sunday, Easter, Pentecost, Vardavar, the Assumption of the Virgin, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Selection. In addition, the text concludes with a selection of hallelujahs, anthems, introits, and hymns sung on feast days, as well as the colophon, and a further selection of hymns (sharakan). Each of the sections is marked by large initial bird letters, accompanied by marginal decorations.