THE LIFE OF
MASHDOTS
THE STORY OF
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE BLESSED MAN ST.MASHDOTS VARTABED OUR TRANSLATOR
[WRITTEN] BY HIS PUPIL GORIUN VARTABED
VII
Therefore, taking with him a group of young men, by
authority of the King and the consent of Saint Sahak,
the blessed Maslitots took leave with a kiss of
holiness, on the fifth year of King Vramshapouh's
reign, and came to the region of
Aram,
to two Assyrian cities, one of which was called Edessa,
and the other, Amid.
There he presented himself to two bishops, one of whom was called Babilas,
and the other, Akakios. And they, clergy and nobles of
the city, received the visitors with due honours and solicitude, in keeping with
the custom of Christians.
The dedicated teacher then divided his pupils into two
groups, assigning one group to the Assyrian school in the city of
Edessa, and the other to the Hellenic school in
Samosata.
VIII
He then resumed, with his co-workers, his
usual prayerful labors, his tearful pleadings, his life of austerity, and (278)
his anxieties, remembering the word of the prophet: "In retiring and rest shalt thou live."
Thus he experienced many tribulations in order to serve his nation. And
God the All-Bountiful finally granted him that good fortune; for with his holy
hand he became the father of new and wonderful offsprings - letters of the Armenian language, and then and
there quickly designed, named, determined, their order and devised the
syllabication.
Then taking leave of the holy Bishop, he went, along with his pupils, to
the city of
Samosata, where he was accorded great honors by the Bishop and
the Church. He found there in the same city, a Hellenic scribe, named Ropanos, by whose hands all the variations of the letters,
thin and heavy strokes, long and short, th~ single
letters as well as the diphthongs were devised, after which he proceeded with
translations, with the help of two of his pupils, Hovhan, from the province of Ekeghiats,
and Hovsep from the House of Baghan.
And thus began the translation of the Bible, first, the Proverbs of Solomon,
which begins with the exhortation to seek wisdom: "To know wisdom and
instruction, to perceive the words of understanding,” which was written also
by the same scribe. At once they began to teach the youth, [training] scribes
for the same task.
IX
Then taking papers from thd
Bishop of the city and taking leave of them together with his followers, he came
to the Assyrian Bishop. He showed the alphabet to those who had received him
earlier. Whereupon from the holy bishops and all the churches
there rose many hymns of (279) praise, glorifying God and offering encouragement
to the students. And taking with him letters of good tidings and God's
gracious gift, he set out with his group, safely, passing many hostelries, and
with profound joy, he arrived in
Armenia, in the regions of the
province of
Airarat, near the limits of the
New
City, on the sixth year
of King Vramshapouh's reign.
Even Moses the Great was not as happy when he descended
from Mount
Sinai. We do not say that he
[was happier], but that he was even much less[happy].
For as the man who had seen God descenaed froxif the mountain, holding the Commandments inscribed by
God, he [was saddened] because of the sinful people: who having [turned away]
from Providence, had become abject God-forsakers and
were bowing down before their molten idol, to the great distress of the bearer
of the Commandments, causing him to lament, as is evident from his breaking the
tablets.
But the blessed one concerning whom this essay is bemg written did not act as had transpired there; on the
contrary, filled with spiritual consolation, he was confident of the eagerness
of those who were to be the recipients, and in anticipation of the joy of the
recipients, the very hostekies on his road appeared as
receivers of tidings.
Let no one consider us bold or what we have said. We may
be subject to censure for our analogy between a very modest man and Moses the
magnificent, who had spoken with God. But we feel justified in that, there is no
reason to disparage, overtly or covertly that which is from God; for it is from
only one omnipotent God that all graces come to earth-born men.
And thus as the unforgettable one approached the royal
city, they informed the King and the holy Bishop. (280)
And they, followed by the entire assemblage of noble
courtiers and a throng, came outside the city and met the blessed one on the
bank of River Rah,
and after warm greetings amidst sounds of joy and the singing of hymns and
doxologies, returned to the city. And the days passed in festive joy.
X
He then immediately obtained permission
from the King to undertake [to teach] in the savage regions of the Medians
who were difficult to communicate with, not only because of their devilish,
satanic, and fiendish character, but also because of their very crude, corrupt,
and harsh language. Undertaking to refine them, they made them, offsprings of many generations, intelligible, eloquent,
educated, and informed of godly wisdom. Thus they became immersed in the laws
and commandments, to the extent of becoming distinguishable from their fellow
natives.
XI
And from then on continuing with the husbandry of God's
work, they began with the evangelical art - to translate, to write, and to
teach, especially since they had before their eyes the Lord's lofty commands and
God's lofty Commandments which were given to blessed Moses concerning all the
things that were - so as to be inscribed in a book to be preserved for the
eternity to come, as well as similar commands which had been given to other
prophets: "Take thee a great roll," said He, "and write in (281) it with a
scribe's pen." And elsewhere: "Now go, write it on a tablet, and inscribe it in
a book." But David indicates even more clearly that the divine law shall apply
to all nations, by saying, "This shall be written for the generation to come,"
and that "The Lord shall count when he written up the
people," which in His coming Christ fulfilled by His gracious commandment: "Go
ye therefore and teach all nations," and that "this
gospel shall be preached in all the world." Thus our blessed fathers, having
obtained permission, rendered their work, through hopeful endeavour, manifest and
fruitful as the gospel.
At that time our blessed and wonderful
land of Armenia became truly worthy of admiration, where by the hands
of two colleagues, suddenly, in an instant, Moses, the law-giver, along with the
order of the prophets, energetic Paul with the entire phalanx of the apostles,
along with Christ's world-sustaining gospel, became Armenian-speaking.
What heart-warming joy existed there thenceforward, and
what a pleasant scene for the eyes! For a land which had not known even the name
of the regions where all those wonderful divine acts had been performed, soon
learned all the things that were, not only those that had transpired in time,
but that of the eternity which had preceded, and those that had come later, the
beginning and the end and all the divine traditions.
XII
And as they became certain that things were
firmly established, they were emboldened even more in gathering more pupils for
the newly discovered leamiug, so as to instruct,
educate, and train for preaching illiterate men. (282) On their part they arose and came in large numbers from all
parts and provinces of
Armenia to the [newly] opened fountain of divine knowledge. For
in the provinces of Airarat at the seat of kings and
patriarchs, there gushed forth for the Armenians a grace of God's commandments.
Here it is needful to recall the words of the Prophet: "And there shall spring a
fountain in the House of David."
And truly the [two] pillars of the Church boldly assumed the task of
preaching Christ by sending to different parts and provinces of Armenia their apostles of truth, [deeming] those of us who
had completed their training as qualified to teach others. To them they offered
their own labors as examples and guide rules, bidding them to stay within those
rules.
And by their God-given wisdoni
they instructed nearby the royal court together with the entire azatagound
banak.
Moreover, blessed Sahak instructed especially the men
of the Mamikonians, foremost of whom was named
Vardan,
who was also called Vardkan. Likewise he strove to
instruct everyone and to impart the knowledge of the truth.
XIII
After this the blessed Mashdots obtained permission so that while the Lord Bishop
disseminated the word of life among the royal garrisons, he himself would do
likewise in areas of heathendom.
And he took leave of them with his assistants, the first one of whom was named
Tirayr from the province of Khordsenakan, and that of the second, Moushe, from the province of Taron, who were both saintly, energetic Imeni, as well as other servants of the gospel whom I ani unable to designate by name. To- (283) gether with them, trusting in God's grace, the blessed one
arrived in Rotastak of Goghtan, his first parish. And expounding the doctrine in
his usual manner, in company with the pious Shabit, he
filled the province with the message of Christ's gospel, and in all the towns of
the province he established orders of monks. He was soon joined by Git, son of the Christ-loving Shabit, who followed in his father's footsteps, and rendered
much service to the vardapet in the manner of a true
son.
XIV
After this he went to Siunik,
across the boundary. Here too he was received with godly amenities by the ruler
of Siunik
whose name was Vaghinak. From him (Mashdots) obtained much assistance in his assumed task,
enabling him to visit and to familiarize himself with all parts of Siunik. And so as to teach he gathered youths from the more
brutal, barbarian, and fiendish regions and cared for them and instructed as a
teacher, educated and advised them so well as to ordain a bishop overseer from
among those barbarians, whose name was Ananias, a
saintly, distinguished man, and a father for the seminarians. He then filled the
region of Siunik with monastic orders.
At that time God ordained that brave Vasak
Siuni,
a wise and ingenious, far-seeing man, endowed with the grace of divine
knowledge, came to be the ruler of Siunik. He greatly
assisted in the work of the evangelization. He showed obedience, as a son to his
father, and duly serving the gospel, carried out all his requests. (284)
XV
Again, after the passage of sonie time, the beloved of Christ thought of taking care of
the barbarian regions, and by the grace of God undertook to create an alphabet
for the Georgian language. He wrote, arranged, and put it in order, and taking a
few of his pupils, arrived in the regions of
Georgia. And he went and presented himself to King Bakour, and the bishop of the land, Moses.
He placed his skill at their disposal, advised and urged them, and they
consented to do what he requested. And he found a Georgian translator by the
name of Jagha, a literate and devout man. The Georgian
king then ordered that youths be gathered from various parts and provinces of
his realni and brought to the vardapet. Taking them he put them through the forge
of education, and with spiritual love and energy he removed [frbm them] the purulent uncleanliness of the worship of spirits and false idols, and
he separated and purged them from their native [traditions], and made them lose
their recollection to such an extent that they said, "I forgot my people and my
father's house."
And thus they who had been gathered from among so many
distinct and dissimilar tongues, he bound together with one (set of) divine
commandments, transforming them into one nation and glorifiers of one God. There
were found among them men worthy of attaining the order of bishop, first among
whom was a saintly and devout man by the name of
Samuel, who became the Bishop of the royal court.
And when he had organized the work of God's worship in all parts of
Georgia, taking leave of them he returned to Armenia, and meeting Sahak, the
Catholicos of the Armenians, recounted all that had transpired [and] together
they glorified God and the exalted Christ. (285)
© 2004,
Copyrighted -
Translated
from Old Armenian (Krapar) by Bedros Norehad
