Knarik O. Meneshian (*)
Since childhood, I’ve always had a reverence and love for the
Armenian Church. I joined the choir when I was a teenager. The Armenian
All Saints Apostolic Church, as some of you will recall, was on Lemoyn
Street in Chicago at the time. One day, Der Hayr Maronian, the
parish priest then, handed me a scroll and told me to go home and study
it and be prepared to read it the following week. It was a long scroll,
and beautifully handwritten in Armenian. The following week during
church service, I was motioned to ascend the altar where I unrolled the
scroll and read from the Book of Daniel (Դանիէլի գիրք). I’ve never forgotten the serene feeling that came over me in church that day as I read to the congregation.
Before starting my presentation, I would like to recount a scene
from a historical novel I read several years ago on the American
Indians. The scene began with an entire village walking—again in search
of better hunting grounds. The village elder followed behind the group
carrying a tattered bundle on his back. Once in a great while, he
slipped something into his bundle, but he never removed anything from
it. The people often wondered what it was that he carried in the bag and
guarded so carefully. One day, someone asked, "Oh, Elder, what is in
your bundle? It looks so heavy and seems such a burden to carry." The
village elder paused and then beckoned everyone to sit down. As they sat
around him, the elder gently placed the bundle on the ground and
reverently knelt before it and said, "This bag, my people, contains
our history. Without it, we would not know who we are; what we are."
Now, let’s glimpse into our own history, a segment of our history
nearly forgotten: the women deacons of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
After Armenia accepted Christianity as the state religion in 301 AD,
magnificent things began to take place in the country. Churches were
built, some over the ruins of pagan temples. Tatev Vank, for example,
was built atop a pagan ruin and Holy Etchmiadzin over a Zoroastrian
temple. The alphabet was invented. The Bible was translated into
Armenian. The arts, education, and literature flourished. Books such as The History of Vartanank by Yeghishe, The History of Armenia by Khorenatsi, and later, The Book of Prayers by Narekatsi, were written.
Susan, a woman scribe, copied Yeghishe’s and Khorenatsi’s books, and the scribe Goharine copied Narekatsi’s book. Sharagans were written, some by women, notably Sahagadoukht, a poetess and composer who wrote some of the sharagans
for the Armenian Church and taught men while seated behind a canopy. It
is believed that some of the ancient pagan tunes were used to sing the
psalms.
Women deacons, an ordained ministry, have served the Armenian Church for centuries. In the Haykazian Dictionary, based on evidence from the 5th century Armenian translations, the word deaconess
is defined as a "female worshiper or virgin servant active in the
church and superior or head of a nunnery." Other pertinent references to
women deacons in the Armenian Church are included in the Mashdots
Matenadaran collection of manuscripts from the period between the fall of
the Cilician kingdom (1375) and the end of the 16th century, which contain the ordination rite for women deacons.
The diaconate is one of the major orders in the Armenian Church. The
word deacon means to serve ‘with humility’ and to assist. The Armenian
deaconesses historically have been called սարկաւագ (sargavak) or deacon.
They were also referred to as deaconess sister or deaconess nun. The
other major orders of the church are bishop and priest. The deaconesses,
like the bishops and monks, are celibate. Their convents are usually
described as անապատ (anabad), meaning, in this case, not a "desert" as the
word implies, but rather "an isolated location where monastics live
away from populated areas." Anabads differ from monasteries in
their totally secluded life style. In convents and monasteries, Armenian
women have served as nuns, scribes, subdeacons, deacons, and
archdeacons ("first among equals"), as a result not only giving of
themselves, but enriching and contributing much to our nation and
church. In the 17th century, for example, the scribe and
deaconess known as Hustianeh had written a devotional collection of
prayers and lives of the fathers, and a manuscript titled Book of Hours, dated 1653.
The following illustrates the length of time it took a candidate, after years of serious spiritual and religious preparation, to become
an ordained deaconess: The Deacon Hripsime Sasunian, born in Damascus,
Syria, in 1928, entered the Kalfayan Sisterhood Convent in Istanbul,
Turkey, at the age of 25. At age 38, she was ordained sub-deacon, and at
age 54, deacon.
To appreciate more fully the role of the deaconess in the church, Father Abel Oghlukian’s book, The Deaconess In The Armenian Church, refers to Fr. Hagopos Tashian’s book Վարդապետութիւն Առաքելոց (Vardapetutiun Arakelots… [Teachings of the Apostles…]), Vienna, 1896, and Կանոնագիրք հայոց (Kanonagirk Hayots [Book of Canons]) edited by V. Hakobyan, Yerevan, 1964, in which a most striking thought is expressed:
If the bishop represents God the Father and the priest Christ,
then the deaconess, by her calling, symbolizes the presence of the Holy
Spirit, in consequence of which one should accord her fitting respect.
The history of the deaconess in the Armenian Apostolic Church can be
broken down into two periods: the medieval period beginning in the 9th century, and the modern period beginning in the 17th century to the present, though before the 9th century vague reference is made to them "beginning in the 4th century." In Prof. Roberta R. Ervine’s published paper titled, "The
Armenian Church’s Women Deacons," which includes a number of fascinating
photos of deaconesses, she lists the names of 23 of the Church’s women
deacons who have been recorded, along with their ordinations, various
activities, and contributions to the church.
Over the centuries, in some instances, the mission of the Armenian
deaconesses was educating, caring for orphans and the elderly, assisting
the indigent, comforting the bereaved, and addressing women’s issues.
They served in convents and cathedrals, and the general population.
Though there were those who approved of women in the diaconate, some
of the church fathers, such as the clergyman Boghos Taronatsi and
Nerses Lambronatsi (1153-1198), whose great uncle was Nerses Shnorhali,
did not. Instead, they wanted to close it to them. Interestingly, when
Lambronatsi was around "37 years old in 1190, his mother Sahandukht and
two sisters Susana and Dalita entered the Lambronatsi convent as
founding members of that congregation."
Mkhitar Gosh (l130-1213), however, who was a priest, public figure,
scholar, thinker, and writer, "defended the practice of ordaining women
to the diaconate," Ervine writes, and she adds that in his law book
titled, On Clerical Orders and the Royal Family, Gosh described women deacons and their specific usefulness in the following words:
There are also women ordained as deacons, called deaconesses for
the sake of preaching to women and reading the Gospel. This makes it
unnecessary for a man to enter the convent or for a nun to leave it.
When priests perform baptism on mature women, the deaconesses
approach the font to wash the women with the water of atonement behind
the curtain.
Their vestments are exactly like those of nuns or sisters, except
that on their forehead they have a cross; their stole hangs from over
the right shoulder.
Do not consider this new and unprecedented as we learn it from the
tradition of the holy apostles: For Paul says, "I entrust to you our
sister Phoebe, who is a deacon of the church."
“Smbat Sparabet (Constable), who lived in the 13th century, was the brother of King Hetoum and an important figure in
Cilicia. He was a diplomat, judge, military officer, translator
(especially of legal codes), and a writer. In his Lawbook he, like Gosh, also mentions women deacons, but "places them under the authority of priests, rather than of male deacons."
“In his book, The History of the Province of Siunik, the
historian and bishop of Siunik, Stepanos Orbelian (1260-1304), also
wrote about women deacons. He, like Mkhitar Gosh and Smbat Sparabet,
also approved of women deacons and believed that it was a laudable
institution. In her paper, Ervine explains that Orbelian placed the
deaconess in the role of preacher and Gospel reader, and denoted her
status of office as a stole (ուրար, oorar) on the right side. (Later,
the women deacons would wear the stole on the left side, like the male
deacons.) She includes this passage from Orbelian’s book on Syunik:
The woman deacon served on the altar, as did her male counterpart,
and the bishop did not limit her liturgical service to convent churches
only, but she did stand apart from the male deacons for avoidance of
any perceived impropriety. She also did not touch the sacred Elements.
In the 17th century, a great reform movement, begun by
Movses Tatevatsi, took place in Etchmiadzin. When Tatevatsi became
Catholicos in 1629, he "sparked a spiritual and cultural revival not
only in the Armenian homeland, but also in communities as far away as
Jerusalem." He was a great believer in the education of women and
encouraged them; as a result, the number of women deacons in the church
increased.
Among the progressive and inspiring changes Tatevatsi made, even
before his election to Catholicos, was the building of a convent next to
St. Hovhannes Church in Nor Julfa (New Julfa) in 1623. The convent
complex, which included a church for monastic women, was called Նոր Ջուղայի Սուրբ Կատարինեան Անապատ (St. Catherine’s Convent of New Julfa) after a 4th century martyr named Saint Catherine.
Deaconesses Uruksana, Taguhi, and Hripsime were the founding members
of St. Catherine’s Convent, which existed for three and one-quarter
centuries. St. Catherine’s Convent ran two schools and an orphanage, and
oversaw a factory. In its early years, the convent had many Sisters.
Throughout the convent’s history, some of the monastic women were
ordained as deaconesses, while others "were content with receiving minor
clerical orders."
By 1839, the number of women at the convent had decreased to 16. The
last abbess of St. Catherine’s was Yeghsabet Israelian, whose brother
was elected Patriarch Giuregh I in Jerusalem in 1944. Eventually, the
number of monastic women at the convent decreased even further and in
1954 the doors of St. Catherine’s were closed.
Around this period, approximately a thousand miles north of New
Julfa, in the city of Shushi in Artsakh, there was a small convent whose
members never grew beyond five. In the village of Avetaranots, southeast
of Shushi, there was another convent. In the northern part of Artsakh,
in the Martakert region, there was once a monastery for monastic women
in the village of Kusapat known as Կուսանաց Անապատ (Convent of the Virgins). Upon the ruins of the monastery a church was built.
The women’s monastic community of Կուսանաց Սուրբ Ստեփանոս վանք (Convent of St. Stepanos Monestary) was established in Tiflis, Georgia
in 1725. The mission at St. Stepanos was the training of women deacons.
As at St. Catherine’s, the Sisters at St. Stepanos were ordained
deaconesses. "In 1933, the community comprised 18 members, 12 of whom
were ordained deacons."
The աբբայուհի (abbess) of the convent was always an
archdeaconess. She wore a ring on her finger and two crosses that hung
down her chest. St. Stepanos’ last abbess, Deaconess Hripsime
Tahiriants, who was a woman of authority and influence, came from a
prominent family. During a trip to Jerusalem, she served on the altar of
the Cathedral of Saints James in Jerusalem. The deaconesses of St.
Stepanos were noted for their musical abilities, and as a result, they
were frequently asked to perform at functions, including funerals. These
engagements helped support their religious community. When women
entered convents, they brought funds with them to help support
themselves. If, however, someone came from an indigent family, then the
abbess provided for her needs. Upon the death of a deaconess, whatever
money remained after funeral expenses was kept by the convent. If,
however, upon the monastic woman’s death, she had not yet attained the
rank of deaconess, after funeral expenses, half of the money she brought
with her to the convent was returned to the family.
It is interesting to note that Holy Etchmiadzin’s finely carved
wooden doors are a gift from Deaconess Tahiriants. The inscription on
the doors read: Յիշատակ Աւագ Սարկաւագուհի Հռիփսիմէ Աղէկ Թահիրեանց, 1889 (In Memory of Archdeaconess Hripsime Aghek Tahiriants).
In 1892, Deaconess Tahiriants traveled to Etchmiadzin for the
consecration of Khrimian Hayrig as Catholicos, and there she presented
him with a gold and silver embroidered likeness of the Cathedral of
Etchmiadzin. It was on this occasion that she had given H.F.B. Lynch,
the author of Armenia: Travels and Studies, her photo, which the author used in his book, and is on the cover of Fr. Oghlukian’s book and in Ervine’s paper.
St. Stepanos’s women’s community ceased to exist before 1939, but
Nicolas Zernov, a Russian clergyman and writer on church affairs, wrote
in 1939 how impressed he had been when present at the Eucharist in the
St. Stepanos Armenian Church in Tiflis "where a woman deacon fully
vested brought forward the chalice for the communion of the people."
According to Internet sources, in 1988, the Georgian government took ownership of the 14th-century
church. Between 1990 and 1991, all Armenian inscriptions were either
removed or destroyed, and burial vaults where the Armenian deaconesses
were laid to rest were destroyed. Goosanats Sourp Stepanos Vank is now a
Georgian church.
The Kalfayan Sisterhood of Istanbul, whose "stated mission was the
care and education of orphans," was established in 1866. Patriarch
Mesrop Naroyan ordained the sisterhood’s first member, Aghavni Keoseian,
as deacon in 1932. Patriarch Shnork Galustian ordained the last,
Hripsime Sasunian, in 1982.
Ervine writes of Sasunian: "In 1986, Deacon Hripsime Sasunian
visited the Western Diocese of America, where she served the liturgy in a
different parish of the Diocese on each Sunday of her visit. She had
functioned as head of the Kalfayan Orphanage, served the Patriarchate as
an accountant, in addition to serving the Sunday liturgy in various
parishes in the capital. Patriarch Galustian used, on the occasion of
the ordination of Deacon Hripsime Sasunian, the canon for a male
deacon."
Deaconess Sasunian was invited to Lebanon in 1990 by His Holiness
Catholicos Karekin II of Cilicia to found a new Sisterhood. Named the Sisterhood of
the Followers of St. Gayane, it was established next to the Bird’s Nest
Orphanage in Byblos, Lebanon. As a result, the monastic veil was awarded
to the Sisterhood’s first candidate, Knarik Gaypakyan, in the Cathedral
at Antelias on June 2, 1991. "At the present time, three women deacons
serve the Bird’s Nest Orphanage…under the jurisdiction of the
Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia." (Note: In a press release
from the Armenian Prelacy of Aderbadagan, Iran, it was announced that on
Mon., June 24, 2013, the Very Reverend Der Grigor Chiftjian, Prelate of
Aderbadagan, attended a meeting regarding church matters at the
Catholicosate in Antelias. He also visited the Bird’s Nest Orphanage and
met with Sisters Knarik Gaypakian, Shnorhig Boyadjian, and Gayane
Badakian to discuss how to attract more women to the Sisterhood.)
Besides the places mentioned, women’s religious communities also
existed in Astrakhan, Russia, Bursa, Turkey, and Jazlowiec, Poland. In
Astrakhan, two deaconesses, sisters Hripsime and Anna Mnatsaganyan,
served the community. They each gifted a diaconal stole to the Cathedral
of Etchmiadzin, with the inscriptions "Deaconess nun at the Cathedral
of Soorp Astvatzadzeen, Astrakhan, 1837," followed by their names. In
the 1800’s, in Turkey’s Bursa region, Deaconess Nazeni Geoziumian ran a
school for girls, along with her religious duties. In Jazlowiec
(pronounced Yaswovietch), Hripsime Spendowski was ordained deaconess.
She was the daughter of Stepan Spendowski, an Armenian who had
immigrated to Jazlowiec in 1648. The town had a sizeable Armenian
population, and the Armenian Prelacy was established there in 1250.
Because of Spendowski’s heroism and distinguished military service
fighting the Tatars and Turks, who had invaded the town, the King of
Poland honored him with the rank of nobility, and bestowed upon him the
title of "mayor for life" of Jazlowiez.
In 1984, Archbishop Vatche Hovsepian, Primate of the Western
Diocese, ordained Seta Simonian Atamian acolyte at the holy altar of St.
Andrew Armenian Church, in Cupertino, Calif. In 2002, Archbishop Kissag
Mouradian, Primate of Argentina, ordained Maria Ozkul to the diaconate.
Currently, there is a small number of nuns serving the Armenian Apostolic Church in Armenia. Established in the early part of the 21st century, their order is known as the Sourp Hripsimyants Order. They reside in the վանատուն
(monastery) at Sourp Hripsime Church in Etchmiadzin, one of the "oldest
historical monuments of Armenian architecture and the second church
built by St. Gregory the Illuminator during the first quarter of the 4th century, and rebuilt in 618."
I conclude my presentation with a quote by Bishop Karekin
Servantzdiantz who was a student of Khrimian Hayrig, a patriot,
preacher, writer, and compiler of Armenian stories—fables, anecdotes,
and folk-tales:
Patriotism is a measureless and sublime virtue, and the real
root of genuine goodness. It is a kind of virtue that prepares a man to
become the most eager defender of the land, water, and traditions of the
fatherland.
The women deacons of the Armenian Apostolic Church, who through the
centuries have reverently and humbly served our church and nation, are
shining examples of the most eager defenders of the land, water, and
traditions of the Fatherland.
Sources
Ervine, Roberta R., “The Armenian Church’s Women Deacons,” St. Nerses Theological Review (New Rochelle), 12 (2007).
Oghlukian, Fr. Abel, The Deaconess In The Armenian Church – A Brief Survey, New Rochelle, NY: St. Nerses Armenian Seminary, 1994.
Barnett, James Monroe, The Diaconate – A Full And Equal Order, Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995.
Karapetyan, Bakour, Հարիւր տարուայ երկխօսութիւն (A Hundred Year’s Dialogue), Yerevan, Armenia, 1990.
Lynch, H.F.B. Armenia – Travels and Studies, vol. 1, New York: The Armenian Prelacy, 1990.
Gulbekian, Yedvard, “Women In The Armenian Church,” Hye Sharzhoom (Fresno, CA) (April 1982).
Meneshian, Knarik O., “The Sisters at The Church of St. Hripsime,” The Armenian Weekly (July 10, 2004).
Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, “Year Of
The Armenian Woman 2010, Pontifical Message of His Holiness Aram I,
Catholicos Of The Great House of Cilicia,” New York, 2009.
Karras, Valerie, “Women In The Eastern Church – Past, Present, and Future,” The St. Nina Quarterly, A Journal Exploring the Ministry of Women in the Eastern Orthodox Church (Cambridge, MA), vol.1, no. 1, 1997.
Der-Ghazarian, Sub-Dn. Lazarus, “On The Order of Deaconesses In The
Armenian and Catholic Church – A Concise Overview,” Online article, Dec.
25, 2008.
Synek, Eva M., “Christian Priesthood East and West: Towards A Convergence?,” MaryMartha Journal,
Vol. 4, No. 2, 1996. (Note: The report, which discusses the deaconesses
of the Armenian Apostolic Church, was presented at the XII
International Congress of the Society for the Law of the Eastern
Churches, Brookline, Boston, MA, 1995. Report is online)
Boyajian, Dikran H., ed. & comp., The Pillars Of The Armenian Church, Watertown, MA: Baikar Press, 1962.
"The Armenian Weekly," July 6, 2013
(*) Text of a lecture presented at a program organized by the Chicago chapter of the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society on June 9 at the Shahnazarian hall of the Armenian All Saints Church of Glenview, Illinois.
Very interesting article!I had no idea of the importance of deaconesses in the Armenian Church. Thanks for making accesible sources difficult to find, specially for someone living in Argentina. Mirta Djeredjian
ReplyDeletePleased to be of help.
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