History of Armenia

PREFACE

Ghazar Parpetsi was born in the village of Parpi in the Ararat plain, which is located to the northwest of Vagharshapat and remains inhabited to this day. The exact dates of his birth and death have not reached us. According to probable calculations, he must have been born in the years 440–443 1, and died in the sixth century. Popular tradition points to the village of Lazrevan, located half an hour east of Parpi, as Ghazar’s residence; the old church nearby was allegedly built in his name, and his grave is enclosed in the southern sacristy of the same church 2.

In his childhood, Ghazar was fed and raised in Georgia under the care of Dzuik, the mother of Vahan Mamikonyan, being a companion in food and play to Vahan Mamikonyan and his brothers. In Georgia, Dzuik, the widow of Hmayeak Mamikonyan, had found shelter with her four orphaned children at the home of her sister, Anushvram, who was the wife of the Georgian bdeshkh viceroy/governor Ashusha. It was precisely through the great efforts and pleas of this Ashusha that King Yazdegerd II agreed to spare the lives of the small Mamikonyan children, Vahan and his brothers, who had been captured and taken to Persia by Prince Vasak and were to be executed according to Persian law as sons of a rebel. It was alongside these young princes that Ghazar was raised and educated. Subsequently, he became a student of the notable Aghan Artsruni, from whom he received ordination into the clergy. After finishing his education in Armenia, he was sent to Byzantium by the order of his teachers.

1. Gr. Khalatyants, "Ghazar Parpetsi and his works," p. 5–7.
2. Hovh. Bishop Shahkhatunyan, "Description of the Catholicosate of Etchmiadzin and the five provinces," Vol. B, p. 74.

After staying there for a few years, he returned to his homeland and, during the years of Vahan Mamikonyan’s rebellion, lived in Shirak with the Kamsarakan princes. From there, at about the age of forty, he went to Syunik, where he led an ascetic life for two years, until Vahan Mamikonyan, having become the sparapet commander-in-chief and marzpan governor of Armenia, searched for his childhood friend Ghazar and brought him to his side.

At this time, approximately in the years 485–486, a new period of activity began for Ghazar. Vahan Mamikonyan, having renovated the Cathedral church in Vagharshapat and established a monastic brotherhood, appointed Ghazar as its abbot. Benefiting from the governor's patronage and the heartfelt friendship of his brothers and the Kamsarakan princes, and thanks to his own innate abilities, Ghazar soon brightened the monastery and, through his impactful sermons, earned the delight and sympathy of the people. However, he also encountered powerful adversaries here. Even before he was appointed abbot, high-ranking clergymen—some even offering bribes to Vahan—sought to obtain the productive office of the Cathedral's abbot. When their desire was not fulfilled and Ghazar earned this office, they subsequently exerted all their efforts and used every possible and impossible means to lower Ghazar in the governor's eyes and drive him from the monastery. The envious ones finally achieved both of their goals: they once launched an attack on the monastery, and Ghazar barely managed to escape with his life. Perhaps lacking the opportunity to rely on Vahan Mamikonyan, he fled to Amid A modern description note: The page includes a "Digitized by Google" watermark.