Echmiatsin Cathedral is the mother church of the Armenian Apostolic Church, located in the city dually known as Echmiatsin (Ejmiatsin) and Vagharshapat, Armenia. Constructed at the turn of the fourth century, it is usually considered the first cathedral built in ancient Armenia, and often regarded as the oldest cathedral in the world.
The original Echmiatsin church was built in the early fourth century—between 301 and 303 according to tradition—by Armenia's patron saint Gregory the Illuminator, following the adoption of Christianity as a state religion by King Tiridates III. It was built over a pagan temple, symbolizing the conversion from paganism to Christianity. The core of the current building was built in 483/4 by Vahan Mamikonian after the cathedral was severely damaged in a Persian invasion. From its foundation until the second half of the fifth century, Echmiatsin was the seat of the Catholicos, the supreme head of the Armenian Church.
Although never losing its significance, the cathedral subsequently suffered centuries of virtual neglect. In 1441 it was restored as catholicosate and remains as such to this day. Since then the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin has been the administrative headquarters of the Armenian Church. Echmiatsin was plundered by Shah Abbas I of Persia in 1604, when relics and stones were taken out of the cathedral to New Julfa in an effort to undermine Armenians' attachment to their land. Since then the cathedral has undergone a number of renovations. Belfries were added in the latter half of the seventeenth century and in 1868 a sacristy (museum and room of relics) was constructed at the cathedral's east end. Today, it incorporates styles of different periods of Armenian architecture. Diminished during the early Soviet period, Echmiatsin revived again in the second half of the twentieth century, and under independent Armenia.
As the center of Armenian Christianity, Echmiatsin has been an important location in Armenia not only religiously, but also politically and culturally. A major pilgrimage site, it is one of the most visited places in the country. Along with several important early medieval churches located nearby, the cathedral was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000.
Setting
The cathedral is located at the center of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the administrative headquarters of the Armenian Apostolic Church, in the town dually known as Vagharshapat or chmiatsin . The seventh century churches of St. Hripsime, St. Gayane, the ruined Zvartnots Cathedral, and the 17th century Shoghakat Church are all located in the same town, within short distances from the cathedral.
For much of its history, the complex around the cathedral, which includes the residence of the Catholicos (patriarch), has been known as the Monastery of chmiatsin անք). It was formerly surrounded by 30 ft (9.1 m) high walls, made of brick or cob, and had eight circular towers (turrets). Its external appearance led 19th century visitors to widely compare it to a fortress. The walled monastery, a vast quadrangular enclosure, could have been accessed through four gates.
The cathedral stood—and continues to stand—at the center of a courtyard (a quadrangle), which by Lynch's measurements in the 1890s, was 349 ft 6 in × 335 ft 2 in (106.53 m × 102.16 m), making it larger than the Trinity Great Court in Cambridge, England. He suggested that it may have been at the time the largest quadrangle in the world.
History
Foundation and etymology
In the early fourth century the Kingdom of Armenia, under Tiridates III, became the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as a state religion. Armenian church tradition places the cathedral's foundation between 301 and 303. It was built near the royal palace in what was then the Armenian capital of Vagharshapat, on the site of a pagan temple, which was dated by Alexander Sahinian to the Urartian period. Although no historical sources point to a pre-Christian place of worship in its place, a granite Urartian stele dated to the 8th-6th centuries BC was excavated under the main altar in the 1950s suggesting the existence of a temple. Also excavated under the altar was an amphora, which has been interpreted to have been a part of a fire temple.
In his History of the Armenians, Agathangelos narrates the legend of the cathedral's foundation. Armenia's patron saint Gregory the Illuminator had a divine vision descending from heaven and striking the earth with a golden hammer to show where the cathedral should be built. Later tradition associated the figure with Jesus Christ, hence the name of Echmiatsin (էջ ēĵ "descent" + մի mi "only" + -ա- -a- (linking element) + ծին tsin "begotten"), which translates to "the Descent of the Only-Begotten [Son of God]" or "Descended the Only Begotten". However, the name Echmiatsin did not come into use until the 15th century, while earlier sources call it "Cathedral of Vagharshapat." The Feast of the Cathedral of Holy Echmiatsin (Տոն Կաթողիկե Սբ. Էջմիածնի) is celebrated by the Armenian Church 64 days after Easter, during which a hymn, written by the 8th century Catholicos Sahak III, retelling St. Gregory's vision, is sung.
Malachia Ormanian suggested that the cathedral was built in 303 within seven months because the building was not huge and probably, partially made of wood. He also argued that the foundation of the preexisting temple could have been preserved. Vahagn Grigoryan dismisses these dates as implausible and states that at least several years were needed for its construction. He cites Agathangelos, who does not mention the cathedral in an episode that took place in 306 and suggests the usage of the span of 302 to 325—the reign of Gregory the Illuminator as Catholicos as the dates of the cathedral's construction.
Archaeological excavations in 1955–56 and 1959, led by Alexander Sahinian, uncovered the remains of the original fourth-century building, including two levels of pillar bases below the current ones and a narrower altar apse under the present one. Based on these findings, Sahinian asserted that the original church had been a three-naved vaulted basilica, similar to the basilicas of Tekor, Ashtarak and Aparan (Kasagh). However, other scholars, have rejected Sahinian's view. Among them, Suren Yeremian and Armen Khatchatrian held that the original church had been in the form of a rectangle with a dome supported by four pillars. Stepan Mnatsakanian suggested that the original building had been a "canopy erected on a cross [plan]," while Vahagn Grigoryan proposes what Mnatsakanian describes as an "extreme view," that the cathedral has been essentially in the same form as it is today.
Reconstruction and decline
The city of Vagharshapat and the cathedral were almost completely destroyed during the invasion of Sasanian King Shapur II c. 363. Due to Armenia's unfavorable economic conditions, the cathedral was renovated only partially by Catholicoi Nerses the Great (r. 353–373) and Sahak Parthev (r. 387 – and Catholicos Nerses 439). After Armenia was partitioned between the Roman and Sasanian Empires in 387, Echmiatsin became part of the Persian-controlled east, under the rule of Armenian vassal kings until 428, when the Armenian Kingdom was dissolved. In 450, in an attempt to impose Zoroastrianism on Armenians, Sasanian King Yazdegerd II built a fire temple inside the cathedral. The pyre of the fire temple was unearthed under the altar of the east apse during the excavations in the 1950s.
By the last quarter of the fifth century the cathedral was dilapidated. According to the contemporary historian Ghazar Parpetsi, it was rebuilt from the foundations by Vahan Mamikonian, marzpan (governor) of Persian Armenia. Modern historians place the event in 483/4, a period when the country was relatively stable following the struggle for religious freedom against Persia. Most researchers have concluded that, thus, the church was converted into cruciform church and mostly took its current form. The new church was very different from the original one and "consisted of quadric-apsidal hall built of dull, grey stone containing four free-standing cross-shaped pillars disdained to support a stone cupola." The new cathedral was "in the form of a square enclosing a Greek cross and contains two chapels, one on either side of the east apse."
Although the seat of the Catholicos was transferred to Dvin sometime in the 460s–470s or 484, the cathedral never lost its significance and remained "one of the greatest shrines of the Armenian Church." The last known renovations until the 15th century were made by Catholicos Komitas in 618 (according to Sebeos) and Catholicos Nerses III (r. 640–661). In 982 the cross of the cathedral was reportedly removed by an Arab emir.
Over the course of these centuries of neglect, the cathedral deteriorated to such an extent that it inspired the renowned archbishop Stepanos Orbelian to compose one of his better known poems, "Lament on Behalf of the Cathedral", in 1300. In the poem, which tells about the consequences of the Mongol and Mamluk invasions of Armenia and Cilicia, Orbelian portrays Echmiatsin Cathedral "as a woman in mourning, contemplating her former splendor and exhorting her children to return to their homeland [...] and restore its glory."
From revival to plunder
Following the fall of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia in 1375, the See of Sis experienced decline and disarray. The Catholicosate of Aghtamar and the locally influential Syunik bishops enhanced the importance of the region around Echmiatsin. In 1441 a general council of several hundred religious figures met in Etchmiadzin and voted to reestablish a catholicosate there. The cathedral was restored by Catholicos Kirakos (Cyriacus) between 1441 and 1443. At that time Echmiatsin was under the control of the Turkic Kara Koyunlu, but in 1502, Safavid Iran gained control of parts of Armenia, including Echmiatsin, and granted the Armenian Church some privileges.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, Armenia suffered from its location between Persia and Ottoman Turkey, and the conflicts between those two empires. Concurrently with the deportation of up to 350,000 Armenians into Persia by Shah Abbas I as part of the scorched earth policy during the war with the Ottoman Empire, Echmiatsin was plundered in 1604.
The Shah wanted to "dispel Armenian hopes of returning to their homeland" by moving the religious center of the Armenians to Iran in order to provide Persia with a strong Armenian presence. He wanted to destroy the cathedral and have it physically transferred to the newly founded Armenian community of New Julfa near the royal capital of Isfahan. Shah Abbas offered the prospective new cathedral in New Julfa to Echmiatsin chmiatsin ed, possibly because of the high costs. In the event, only some important stones—the altar, the stone where Jesus Christ descended according to tradition, and Armenian Church's holiest relic, the Right Arm of Gregory the Illuminator—were moved to New Julfa. They were incorporated in the local Armenian St. Georg Church when it was built in 1611. Fifteen stones from chmiatsin n at St. Georg.
17th–18th centuries
Since 1627, the cathedral underwent a major renovation under Catholicos Movses (Moses), when the dome, ceiling, roof, foundations and paving were repaired. At this time, cells for monks, a guesthouse and other structures were built around the cathedral. Additionally, a wall was built around the cathedral, making it a fort-like complex.
The renovation works were interrupted by the Ottoman–Safavid War of 1635–1636, during which the cathedral remained intact. The renovations resumed under Catholicos Pilippos (1632–1655), who built new cells for monks and renovated the roof. During this century, belfries were added to many Armenian churches. In 1653–1654, he started the construction of the belfry in the western wing of Echmiatsin Cathedral. It was completed in 1658 by Catholicos Hakob IV Jugayetsi. Decades later, in 1682, Catholicos Yeghiazar constructed smaller bell towers with red tuff turrets on the southern, eastern, and northern wings.
The renovations of Echmiatsin continued during the 18th century. In 1720, Catholicos Astvatsatur and then, in 1777–1783 Simeon I of Yerevan took actions in preserving the cathedral. In 1770, Simeon I established a publishing house near Echmiatsin, the first in Armenia. During Simeon's reign, the monastery was completely walled and separated from the city of Vagharshapat. Catholicos Ghukas (Lucas) continued the renovations in 1784–1786.
Russian takeover
The Russian Empire gradually penetrated Transcaucasia by the early 19th century. Persia's Erivan Khanate, in which Echmiatsin was located, became an important target for the Russians. In June 1804, during the Russo-Persian War (1804–1813), the Russian troops led by General Pavel Tsitsianov tried to take Echmiatsin, but failed. A few days after the attempt, the Russians returned to Echmiatsin, where they caught a different Persian force by surprise and routed them. Tsitsianov's forces entered Etchmiatsin which, according to Auguste Bontems-Lefort, a contemporary French military envoy to Persia, they looted, seriously damaging the Armenian religious buildings. Shortly after, the Russians were forced to withdraw from the area as a result of the successful Persian defense of Erivan. According to Bontems-Lefort, the Russian behaviour at Echmiatsin contrasted with that of the Persian king, who treated the local Christian population with respect.
On 13 April 1827, during the Russo-Persian War (1826–1828), Echmiatsin was captured by the Russian General Ivan Paskevich's troops without fight and was formally annexed by Russia, with the Persian-controlled parts of Armenia, roughly corresponding to the territory of the modern Republic of Armenia (also known as Eastern Armenia), according to the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay.