Tabernacle Feast

Vartanants Saints^*

"Throughout all centuries, past religion has played a great moral and social role in influencing the history of peoples . . . At least some, if not all, of the feasts of the church comprise the structure of Armenian community life.  Thus, such celebrations serve not only for the preservation of our religious and moral precepts, but also for the general aim of reinforcing our national character." ^*

In Memory of the Vartanian Saints

With their principles of what life demands, the Vartanians occupy a most worthy place in the pages of the history of the Armenian people and their Church.

Among the martyred, Vartan has become a symbol of courage, sacrifice, patriotism, and unfading faith.

The Armenian Church and its people not only simply observe the feast day set aside for the Vartanian, but they organize public meetings and festivities with speakers, ceremonial services, special sermons, etc.

Armenian intellectuals and artists will long probe the Vartanian epic for aspects of expressions that move the Armenian spirit with its character, and in so doing reflect its truth and beauty.  Today, foreign peoples and governments having become more familiar with the epic Vartanian struggle, and with the factors that led to it, have begun to express their admiration and esteem.  For example, in France and in Lebanon, the governments issue proclamations declaring Vartanants day a holiday, enabling Armenian officials, schools and universities, and institutions to honor the memory of martyred heroes.

Many churches, built over the centuries, have been dedicated in the name of the Vartanians.  In those countries of the Diaspora where there are many Armenians, especially in Lebanon and the United States, there are churches named after the Vartanian saints.

Popularly, apart from community-wide celebrations, the Feast of the Vartanians becomes an occasion for family gatherings in honor of those who are named Vartan, or the names of any of the other martyred commanders – Khoren, Artak, Tajat (Dajad), Hmayak, Nerseh, Vahan, Arsen, Garegin (Karekin).  Such occasions are observed with friends and relatives gathered together for a meal and joyous celebration.

The high religious and national worth and the moral force of the reverence for the martyred commander becomes especially marked among the people when youths, or others, decide to join the ranks of the clergy, and the Catholicos and the bishops ordaining the candidate assign the new name of the postulant to be one of the names of the martyred commanders.

St. Vartan Park in New York

In April 1978, the New York City Council, under Mayor Edward Koch, decided unanimously to name the city recreational playground at 35thh and Second Avenue the St. Vartan Park.  It is across the street from the St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral and Diocese.

The decision was made after the Council had examined the circumstances of the Battle of the Vartanian Saints, which was based on the struggle for freedom of conscience and religion, and on the defense of the principles of human rights.

A copy of the formal declaration to name the park was given to His Eminence, Archbishop Torkom Manoogian, then Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America, Eastern Diocese, and now Patriarch of the Armenians of Jerusalem.

The Distinctive Statue of St. Vartan

In the Armenian homeland, Commander Vartan is, in a sense, alive today, and his presence is continually felt by the continuing new generations.  His statue, astride his horse, stands there in the capital city of Yerevan, on a main thoroughfare, being seen daily by tens of thousands, who are inspired by it.  It is sculpted with high artistic and public standards, reflecting the heroic martyr's patriotism.

Concerning the Mamikonian Clan, and Vartan Mamikonian's Own Family

The earliest Armenian writers, in accordance with the practices of the times, have recorded the histories of great figures principally through their works.  Information about other aspects of their lives have been mentioned only incidentally, in passing.

Our writers today still tell only rarely about the personal or family life of their subjects, or about other interesting biographical details.

Nevertheless, for this commander, who reached the pinnacle of glory in his nationalistic and religious aspects, the question is often asked, apart from his works, who was he?

Vartan was the worthy representative and head of the Mamikonian clan, or lineage, which, in the royal succession of Armenian kings, held the fifth position.

The Mamikonian clan had been on the political scene from the third century.  The Arsacids (Arshakunis) had placed their whole military command responsibility in the Mamikonians' hands.  In the fourth century that responsibility already covered the entire region of Taron, where the most consecrated Armenian religious centers were to be found, even from the pagan period, as well as after conversion to Christianity.

 The Mamikonians had their own elite militia, which included 3,000 mounted troops.  On occasion, when the situation called for it, other nakharars placed their mounted troops and infantry under Mamikonian command, to direct a military operation.

The Mamikonian clan had warm marriage ties with the lineage after St. Gregory the Enlightener, to which the highest religious and judicial authority belonged.

The descendents of the Mamikonians and the Gregorians had always cooperated well, and in their political alignment generally held to the Greco-Byzantine position.

The latest in the lineage of St. Gregory the Enlightener was the Catholicos St. Sahak, who, with St. Mesrop Mashtots, provided the foundation for Armenian literary scholarship.  St. Sahak had no male offspring.  His daughter, Sahakanouysh, married Hamazasp Mamikonian, father of Vartan.

St. Gregory the Enlightener on the Throne of the Catholicos-

Patriarch and the Five Successors in His Lineage

St. Gregory Partev (Parthian) the Enlightener (son of Anak Partev, killed in the year 250), 302-325

(1) St. Aristakes Partev (son), 325-333

(2) St. Vrtanes Partev (son),   333-341

(3) St. Housik Partev (grandson), 341-347; Paren Ashtishattsi, 348-352

(4) St. Nerses the Great (son of Housik), 353-373; Sahak Manazkerttsi, 373-377; Zaven Manazkerttsi, 377-381; Aspourakes Manazkerttsi, 381-386

(5) St. Sahak Partev (daughter Sahakanouysh married Hamazasp Mamikonian, from which issue came Vartan Mamikonian and brothers), 386-439

"St. Sahak had no male offspring, and only one daughter, whose hand had been given in marriage to the head of the Mamikonian clan, and national commander Hamazasp.  From that union had come three sons, St. Vartan, St. Hmayak, and the revered Hamazasp.  St. Sahak, blessed of God, gave all the yield of his villages and farms, and all else that he owned, to them, and bequeathed all to them and their issue as a perpetual inheritance." (Lazar of Pharbe)

Hmayak Mamikonian had studied under St. Mesrop Mashtots.  He was a highly educated, shrewd, and important aide to his brother.  Vartan Mamikonian sent him as ambassador to Greece along with Vahan Amatuni and Merhouzhan Ardzruni for the purpose of negotiating military assistance.  Hmayak returned after the battle, but was killed in a separate clash with Persians.  His wife, Tzouik, was, in her day, the most educated and generally best recognized pedagogue.  One of her four sons, Vahan Mamikonian, later assumed the responsibility for overseeing the people's uprising against the Persians.  In 484, he succeeded in negotiating the honorable Nouarsak Treaty; the 1500^th anniversary of that treaty was celebrated in 1984 as a consequence of an encyclical (Gontag) issued by Catholicos Karekin II of the Great House of Cilicia. 

Hamazasp Mamikonian took part in the Battle of Avarayr, and later was taken as prisoner to Persia.  Vartan Mamikonian's wife, Anahit, was of noble birth and a model of a true patriot and a nobly reared Armenian woman.  Vartan and his wife had two daughters.  Their names were Varteni, sometimes called Shoushanik, and Vartanouysh.

Varteni-Shoushan's birth year is taken to be 409.  She married Vazgen, son of the counsel Ashousha of Georgia.  Vazgen, a vain person, became the chieftain of the disavowed apostates of Georgia, and in so doing created a miserable life for his wife.  However, Varteni-Shoushan, true to the virtuous character of the Mamikonian clan, stubbornly refused to submit to her husband's demands for her to renounce her faith, and later his physical coercion.  She finally became a martyr.

Vartan's second daughter, Vartanouysh, married Arshavir Kamsarakan, head of the Arshakuni clan.  After the war, he was taken prisoner and sent to Persia.  It was there, during the trial, that Arshavir Kamsarakan, with marvelous boldness and logic in the great court defended the virtue of remaining true to one's vow.  There too he bared the sin of vainglory, and especially Vasak Siuni's treachery.  After having lived long years in exile and in tribulation, Arshavir Kamsarakan was released, about 465-466, and returned to the father land, until his death in about the year 470.  His sons, Nerseh and Hrahat – grandsons of Vartan – joined Vartan Mamikonian, together waged a long and heroic battle against the Persians to restore the Armenian people's freedom, until the year 484, the year of the historic and honorable Treaty of Nouarsak.

NOTE:  The reader must not regard this abbreviated account of Vartan Mamikonian's heroic life, of his hallowed purposes, and of the details of the history of his clan and family, as ample.  It is essential to read the writings of authors of the Golden Century of Armenian Literature – the "History of Armenia," by Lazar of Pharbe, and especially the masterpiece "History of Vartan and the Armenian War," by Yeghishe (Elisaeus) – in order more thoroughly and deeply to know and comprehend the great works and the hallowed purposes of the lives of the greats of that era.  Although we have most noble feelings about the persons and the works of countless numbers of our greats in history, we must say, however, that if it were not for Lazar of Pharbe and especially Yeghishe, it is probably that the Vartanians would have appeared in books of the history of the Armenians with only a passing mention, such as occurs with other persons and events.

Vartanants Continued > > >

*The text for this topic is taken from: Feast of the Armenian Church and National Traditions. Garo Bedrossian, Translated by Arra S. Avakian; Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, Los Angeles, Dedicated to the 1700th anniversary of the proclamation of Christianity in Armenia; Publication of the printed volume was made possible by Mr. and Mrs. Manuel and Josephine Sassounian, In Memory of their Father, Dikran Sassounian.  Printed by Yerevan Printing and Publishing, Gledale, California.  Original publication in Armenian by Nor Gyank Publishing House, Series No. 9.