Journal ArticleOpen Access
Pane, Riccardo, 2025
Armeniaca. International Journal of Armenian Studies, Vol. 4 (2025), pp. 27–46; DOI 10.30687/arm/2974-6051/2025/01/002 (Edizioni Ca' Foscari, Venice)
Traces the Armenian exegesis of the parable of the ten virgins from the fifth to the fourteenth century, identifying its Greek sources while highlighting what is distinctively Armenian in it. Pane then turns to two unusual works in which the virgins are depicted as men: a bas-relief at Hovhannavank monastery and a miniature by the copyist Yovsian. Beyond the liturgical and eschatological readings proposed in recent scholarship, he argues that the explanation for these 'bearded virgins' lies in the continuous Armenian exegetical tradition, which reinterpreted the parable with reference to the spirituality of male monastic communities.
Journal ArticleOpen Access
Melkonyan, Armine, 2024
Armeniaca. International Journal of Armenian Studies, Vol. 3 (2024), pp. 179–196; DOI 10.30687/arm/2974-6051/2024/01/006 (Edizioni Ca' Foscari, Venice)
Reconstructs an episode in the history of the Armenian community of Manchester during the pastorate of Ghevond Vardapet Pirghalemian (1873–78), a philologist, poet, traveller and church figure from Vaspurakan. Drawing on the period press, Melkonyan examines intra-community disputes, cultural and social activity, and community attitudes toward their pastor. Using Pirghalemian's own notes and colophons, she also documents the works he composed or arranged while in Manchester: a dictionary of provincial words, a collection of seals, a chronology, and volumes of Armenian colophons, and locates several long thought lost in the National Archives of Armenia and the Matenadaran.
Journal ArticleOpen Access
Shirinian, Manya Erna, 2024
Armeniaca. International Journal of Armenian Studies, Vol. 3 (2024), pp. 43–66; DOI 10.30687/arm/2974-6051/2024/01/002 (Edizioni Ca' Foscari, Venice)
Examines the diffusion of the Greek and Armenian versions of the Vita beati Silvestri, a text Shirinian argues has been consistently underestimated. She shows how these versions are entangled with larger questions, above all the claim of apostolic foundation for the papacy and for the patriarchates. The Vita also fed later forgeries built on its content, including the Donation of Constantine and the Armenian Letter of Love and Concord. She concludes that the textual tradition around Sylvester remains an unresolved question that can only be settled by taking all surviving versions, Armenian included, into account.
Journal ArticleOpen Access
Zhamkochyan, Nelli, 2023
Պատմություն և մշակույթ / History and Culture, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 31–47 (Yerevan State University); DOI 10.46991/hc.2023.20.2.031
Treats the international recognition of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and the coronation of Prince Levon II, using medieval Armenian and foreign chronicles alongside modern scholarship. Zhamkochyan reconstructs the favourable international configuration of the late 1180s to 1198 and the parallel negotiations Cilicia conducted with the Holy Roman Empire and Byzantium. She gives particular weight to the confessional concessions the Papacy and Byzantium tried to impose, and to the counter-strategy adopted by the Cilician state and the catholicosate at Hromkla. She concludes that Levon was first anointed by Conrad of Wittelsbach, the papal representative, and subsequently blessed by Catholicos Grigor VI Apirat.
Book ChapterPaywalled
Cowe, S. Peter, 2006
In Michael Angold (ed.), The Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol. 5: Eastern Christianity, chapter 17, pp. 404–429 (Cambridge University Press); DOI 10.1017/CHOL9780521811132.018
Argues that the defining issue for Christendom in this period was ecclesiology, and that for the Armenians it took the form of renewed debate with the other Christian traditions of Byzantium, western Europe and the Near East. Cowe traces the consolidation of the Armenian Church from the catholicate of Yovhan Odznetsi, whose synods reaffirmed one-nature Christology and linked it to the joint celebration of Nativity and Baptism on 6 January and the use of unleavened bread and unmixed wine. He describes the defence of church structures, sacraments and religious art against the Paulicians, the compilation of doctrine and canon law, and an expanded sanctorale centred on St Gregory the Illuminator, all set against the great population movements of the era.
