The Life of Mashtots

The Christian peoples of these regions were speakers of the Armenian tongue. From there, he passed through Gardmank toward the lands of the Georgians. Here (Gugark—Tbilisi), he met Vasak of Syunik, who had been appointed marzpan governor/ruler of the march of the Georgians, and he found warm support from him. Here, he also composed an alphabet for the Georgian language and set out for barbarian Georgia (that is, Kartli with the capital Mtskheta), whose king was Bakur (educated in Hellenistic literature) and whose bishop was Movses. Both accepted the presented alphabet, opened schools, gathered youths, and entrusted their oversight to Mashtots. Having taken as his translator Jaghay, who was learned in both Armenian and Georgian, he translated the Bible into Georgian and directed the instruction of the students in Georgian literacy.

Mashtots returned to the New City Vagharshapat (415 AD). A mission was also necessary toward Roman Armenia to make the new Armenian literature accessible to the "Half of the Armenian nation" as well (415/16). Anatolius, the stratelates military commander, received him and his students with love; but the Emperor’s approval was important for that mission. Theodosius II the Younger (408—450) was still under the guardianship of his sister Pulcheria. An order arrived that Mashtots should personally present the petition before the Emperor. Mashtots was hosted with honor by both the court and the Church; Atticus was the bishop of the capital (404—425). He was granted every freedom by the court for his apostolic activity. Schools were opened at the royal expense and youths were gathered. Mashtots also judged the Borborite heretics. At this time, an Albanian (Aghuan) priest named Benjamin visited him (likely in Constantinople) and requested an alphabet for his barbarian language. Mashtots examined the language and adapted suitable characters (based on the Greek alphabet). Finishing his mission, he entrusted the school affairs of that region to his student Dnan and returned to the New City (420 AD).

He visited Georgia once again, where Arshil was reigning at the time, and returned to Armenia through Tashirk (421 AD).

Now Sahak and Mashtots dedicated themselves to further cultivating Armenian literature. Hovsep and Eznik were sent to Edessa to translate important works of Syriac literature (426 AD); from there, they passed to Constantinople to Armenize the works of the Greek Fathers (431 AD). (During this time, the Council of Ephesus was convened; the disputes continued even after the council. Although Armenia did not participate in these disputes, the reputation had spread that Nestorians had infiltrated there as well. The bishops Acacius of Melitene, Rabbula of Edessa, and Proclus of Constantinople wrote cautionary letters to the Armenians.) Ghevond and Koriwn carried the Armenians' response to Bishop Proclus. They joined Eznik of Koghb in the imperial capital and returned together, bringing with them a select copy of the Greek Bible and other translations (436 AD). Mashtots was occupied with original compositions, writing his "More Frequent Discourses." Sahak withdrew now to the village of Blur in Bagrevand, and with Eznik...