Ermeni Kilisesi Azizler Bölüm III (İngilizce) Hristiyanlık İncil İsa

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Ermeni Kilisesi Azizler Bölüm III (İngilizce)

Tatool, Varos, and Toomas (5th Century)
Tatool and Varos were brothers who decided to retreat to the mountains of Armenia to live as hermits in order to strengthen their faith. They had been witnesses of the deportation of the Armenian clergy and exile of the Armenian nobility during the Vartanantz Battle. Being students of Saints Sahag and Mesrob, they also worked during and after the Vartanantz Battle to reject the monks of Persia and fire worship in general. After remaining in the mountains together for a number of years where they lived a more severe life and ate wild berries and roots for nourishment, they parted to live separately. Tatool became famous with the mountain people .for his piety and, before long, many students gathered around him. He established a monastery in which Toomas became his most outstanding pupil, endeared to all because of his piety, Intelligence, and good nature. As Tatool preferred the life of a hermit to that of abbot of a monastery, he turned his monastery over to Toomas and returned to the mountains. All three saints lived to an old age and monasteries were constructed over their places of rest.
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Yeghisheh, Movses, and Tavit The Holy Translators (5th century)
Yeghisheh was one of the most renowned of the students of St. Sahag and St. Mesrob and, according to tradition, served as secretary to St. Vartan. He wrote the great history of the Battle of Vartanantz in which he also included a section about the Council of Ardashad. He was author of many books and wrote commentaries on some of the books of the Old Testament. After the Battle of Vartanantz, he retired to the mountains. After returning for a time to civilization, he once again retreated to the mountains of the province of Mogk where he lived a virtuous life. Later when the local peasants learned of his saintly ways, he moved to the mountains of the Rushdouni province, where he passed away.
Movses of Khoren, known as the father of Armenian history, was also one of the more important students of St. Sahag and St. Mesrob. He is noted for his abilities in philosophy as well as being a great spiritual leader and pious in nature. He possessed a genius, which was soon realized, and he was commissioned to write a history of Armenia. Later he also wrote a number of very important works among which are histories, poems, hymns, orations, and chants. He was ordained bishop but in a later period, he met opposition as a student of the great translators and was martyred.

Tavit the Invincible, was a student of Movses and received his higher education in centers outside Armenia, particularly in Athens where he received the title of Invincible because of his genius in philosophy. He translated the works of Plato and Aristotle and is also noted for a number of commentaries and ecclesiastical writings. Like Movses, he was subject to persecution. Tavit, like Movses and Yeghisheh, is remembered as one of the Great Translators and intellectuals of the late 5th century who, with pure faith and genius crowned the Golden Age of Armenian literature and church history.
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Krikoris Rajig (Gregoris Rajig) (549 AD)
A Persian by birth from the Rajig family, Krikoris was originally named Manjihr. At a very young age, he moved to Armenia and adopted the Christian faith and his new name. Krikoris entered a monastery near Tvin and was so renowned for his piety and strong faith that the monastery was eventually named Rajig Manjihr. When the Persian Marspan Tenshabouh started his reign over Armenia,' he spent much time and effort spreading the Persian religion and was particularly concerned with Krikoris. Finally, he ordered Krikoris to return to Persia. Krikoris refused whereupon he was tortured and finally beheaded.
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Asdvadzadoor/Makhoj (553 AD)
Makhoj was the chief priest of the monks (pagan priests) assigned to Armenia and was himself the son of a monk and from a priestly family in Tvin. He witnessed the martyrdom of Krikoris Rajig and slowly became drawn towards Christianity. After witnessing a miracle when a conflagration was extinguished by a blessing with a cross, he converted to Christianity. Shortly afterwards, he was imprisoned along with two Armenian priests. During this period he was baptized and received the Holy Orders; he was renamed Asdvadzadoor which means 'gift of God.' Later, during an examination of the prisoners, the two Armenian priests were released; but Makhoj, being a Persian and former high priest, was ordered to return to his old religion. As a result of his firm refusal, he was crucified and shot with an arrow while on the cross. Nerses Catholicos had his body placed near the Cathedral of Tvin and marked his grave with a carved martyrium.
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The Seven Witnesses Called Vegetarians (604 AD)
These seven young men came together near the end of the sixth century from both the Persian and Greek parts of Armenia to live as hermits in the surroundings of the Monastery of Klag. They retired to a nearby cave and used only wild roots, berries, and other types of plant for nourishment.
When the Persian troops marched through Armenia in pursuit of the Byzantines, Armenian Christians suffered the same fate as the Christian Greeks. Boghigarbos, the leader of the seven witnesses, suggested to the abbot of the monastery that he and his companions remain to protect the monastery and the monks should go for help and protection. When the Persian troops passed through, all seven of the witnesses were decapitated. Upon the return of the abbot and monks, they found the bodies of the saints and buried them. With Boghigarbos as their leader, the names of the seven are Teovnas, Simeon, Hovhannes, Yebipan, Timarios, and Nargesos.
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Tavit Tvinetzi (David of Tvin) (701 AD)
Born Sourban of a Persian father and a Christian mother, he entered military service of the Arab overlords at a very young age and was assigned to Armenia, where he served side by side with the Armenian prince Krikor Mamigonian. He accepted the Christian faith and was baptized by Catholicos Nerses the Builder and renamed Tavit. He lived many years in peace and made his home near the Armenian capital, Tvin. When Abdulla Vostigan became overlord of Armenia, he started a series of persecutions against the Christians. Tavit, a former follower of Islam, was among the first to be arrested. When he refused to change his religion, he was crucified and speared upon the cross, when he was sixty years of age. His body was buried near the Mother Chumh of Tvin and the cross and spear used to martyr him were kept in the church.
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Hovhan Otznetzi, Catholicos (John of Otzoon) (c. 728 AD)
Catholicos between 717 and 728 AD, Otznetzi is remembered as one of the most outstanding of the Armenian Church Fathers. Born in the province of Dashratz in the village of Otzoon, he studied with Teotoros Krtenavoree, who was the most celebrated theologian of the time. He received the title of philosopher and was educated in the Hellenic school of thought. He, however, did not bend to Hellenistic politics and during Arab rule in Armenia, endeared himself to the Arab overlords and ushered in a period of tolerance and cooperation. By means of his farsightedness, statesmanship, and piety, he secured some basic and important rights for Armenian Christians such as general religious freedom, the right to worship freely, and exemption from taxes for the church and clergy. He was also able to put a stop to the forced conversion of Christians to Islam. During his second year as Catholicos, he called a Council of Bishops in the city of Tvin where he established thirty-seven canons and organized a collection of the canons of the Armenian Church. These canons were the first such book and it was in time added to and finalized,
St. John of Otzoon is also remembered for his literary and official battles against the numerous sects, which plagued the church at this time. As a writer, he is remembered for his contributions in the Book of Sharagans as well as his many epistles and essays. Respected for his personality, for being righteous, pious, brave, and humble, in addition to being a great statesman and writer, St. Hovhan Otznetzi was greatly loved by the Armenian people. During his latter years, he retired to a mountain monastery, living under severe conditions, as a monk. Armenian Church writers and historians remember his name and he is revered as a saint by all.
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Vahan Koghtnatzi (Vahan of Koghtn) (737 AD)
As a young child, Vahan was taken into custody with many other children of Armenian nobility who had been killed. He was moved to Damascus where he received his education and, like the other children, Islamic training. He was well liked by the Arab leaders and attained a high position in the court. While sewing in court, the Arab overlords granted the captured Armenian children, who had grown to adulthood, the right to return home. Vahan promised his overlord he'd come back but after returning to Armenia, his overlord died and Vahan felt he was released from his promise.
Vahan married and established himself over the lands of his father who was killed prior to his captivity. The Arab overlords, however, demanded Vahan's return and started to pursue him. He fled from one place to another over a number of years, leaving his family and home. At each place he went, the populace became endangered because of his presence so he finally decided to surrender himself, explain his desire to remain in Armenia and practice his own religion. The Vostigan governing Armenia had him immediately thrown into prison and after many different kinds of torture, he was finally beheaded. His life and martyrdom were recorded and according to some traditions, his sister wrote the melody and lyric of the sharagan dedicated to this saint.
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Sahag and Hamazasp Ardzroonik (786 AD)
During the Arab rule in Armenia, these two brothers with a number of other Armenian nobles were responsible for a minor revolution. When they were finally captured, they were given the choice between changing their religion or death. They refused to convert to Islam so the Arab overlord, in his impassioned anger, had them severely tortured and finally beheaded in 786 AD Then he had their bodies hung and finally burned with the ashes spread into the wind so that no relics would remain from their martyred bodies.
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Sahag and Hovsep Gametzik (808 AD)
Sahag and Hovsep were the sons of a Muslim father and an Armenian mother. Their father not only permitted his wife to remain Christian but also allowed her to raise her children as Christians. Pressured by the Muslim overlords to convert, they resisted and were tortured and martyred in the city of Gadn because of their refusal to accept Islam.
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Gregory of Narek(947-1003 AD)
One of the greatest Saints of the Armenian Church, Gregory of Nareg, was a theologian, a poet and musician at the same time. He embraced early the monastic life but he followed closely the religious isues of his time. he wrote, at the end of his life, probably in 1003, his masterpiece, the "Book of Prayers", that will remain forever one of the most appreciated books of prayer of the Armenian people, and considered universally as an exceptional devotional work of religious literature, for the deepness of its thought and its poetic inspiration. it has been translated, partially or totally, in several languages.
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Ermeni Kilisesi Azizler Bölüm III (İngilizce)