St. Sahag
and
St. Mesrob
St. Mesrob was born in the year 361 in the village of Hatzegatz in the
province of Daron. In his early years, he learned both Greek and Persian
and served in the Armenian royal court. Later, he decided to enter the
ranks of the clergy around 395 A.D. During this period, he felt the great
need of the Armenian people for an alphabet of their own, so he petitioned
Catholicos Sahag Partev.
Mesrob traveled throughout Greater and Lesser Armenian and the
Mediterranean world in quest for the lost scriptures. He began to create
skeleton of the Armenian alphabet in 405. Mesrob determined a need of 36
characters for the alphabet and decided to write the characters from left to
right as in Greek. He retained a number of Greek letters and altered others
to fit in with the aesthetic pattern that they had adopted, thereby retaining the order of the Greek
alphabet as much as possible. However, it did not meet the needs of the Armenian language.
According to tradition, while meditating in a cave near the village of Palu, Mesrob had a vision, in which
"the hand of God wrote the alphabet in letters of fire." Upon his return to Catholicos Sahag and King
Vramshapouh, the saint was received with great honors and much joy.
Immediately after the discovery of the alphabet, the Holy Translators completed the translation of the
Bible in 425. The first words written in the Armenian language were from the Book of Proverbs: "To
know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding" (Proverbs 1:2).
The Armenian translation is the fifth known translation of the Bible. Earlier, the Bible was only translated
into Syriac, Latin, Coptic and Abyssinian languages. Some specialists estimate this translation,
performed by St. Mesrob and his disciples, as the best Bible translation ever. The French linguists of
the 19th century termed it as the "Queen of translations".
The Book of Ritual used in the Armenian Church bears the name "Mashdotz" and is dedicated to this
great saint. Although compiled at a later date, it is based on an earlier sacramental anthology attributed
to Mashdotz.
St. Mesrob died at a ripe old age of 79 in 440 AD and is buried in the crypt of the church at Oshakan in
the province of Vaspouragan where a beautiful cathedral has been built in his honor, and where one
may go and pay homage at the saint’s tomb to the present.
http://www.armenianchurch.net/prayer/saints/mashdotz.html
http://www.chgs.umn.edu/museum/exhibitions/homememories/petroglyphs.html
http://www.armenianheritage.com/lamesrob.htm
Feast of the Holy Translators
This October feast honors the lives and
accomplishments of the saints who founded the
Armenian alphabet, translated the Bible into
Armenian, and started a movement of writing and
translating important works into Armenian. This 5th
century and beyond period is called Armenian's
"Golden Age."
At the apex of this group of Holy Translators is St.
Mesrob. Students of Sts. Mesrob and Sahag
include Yeghishe, who served St. Vartan as
secretary and wrote a history of the Battle of
Vartanantz. He also wrote many biblical
commentaries. Another important student was
Movses of Khoren also known as the father of
Armenian history. He wrote a number of histories
and poems. A student of Movses was Tavit the
Invincible, renowned for his genius in philosophy. He translated works of Plato and
Aristotle. The 10th and 12th century giants, St. Gregory of Narek and St. Nersess
Shnorhali are also counted among this group of holy men.
http://www.armenianchurch.net/worship/translators/index.html
Activity 1:
Put on a theater play of the travels of the
St. Mesrob Mashdotz
Actors
Narrator 1
Narrator 2
Mesrob
Sahag
Sona
Berj
Name Tags
Mesrob
Sahag
Sona
Berj
Narrator 1
Narrator 2
1.
Narrator 1
2.
Mesrob
3.
Sahag
4.
Narrator 1
Sona
6. Berj
5.
7.
Sona
Berj
9. Mesrob
8.
10. Narrator 2
11. Sahag
12. Narrator 2
13. Mesrob
Many years after Armenia became Christian a young man
named Mesrob who was studying to be a priest had an
idea
“I’m tired of reading the bible in another language. We
all speak Armenian here but the bible we use is written in
another language. We need to have an Armenian version
of the bible. I’m going to speak to Catholicos Sahag”
“You’re right! We do need to have an Armenian Bible, but
to do that we first need an Armenian alphabet. Why don’t
you create an alphabet from all the sounds in Armenian
words people say. You’ll need to travel all around
Armenia and listen to all the different Armenian words ”
Mesrob leaves and starts a journey around Armenia to
listen to Armenians talking so he can hear all the sounds.
He sees Sona and Berj having a conversation and he
listens.
“Parev Berj, eench bes es?”
“Shat ganokgh artuntsa eis ardoo, payts ameneench lav
e, took eench bes es?”
“Yes al shat lav em, pavagan tsoon gookagor toorseh,
vercheh yertank toors khakhank
“Anshoosht”
“Wow it’s going to take a lot of letters to make all the
sounds in Armenian words. I think I’ll need more than 30
letters!”
Mesrob traveled all around Armenia and was almost done
but he seemed to be missing a few more letters. He visits
Sahag to get help
“Armenian is a beautiful language with lots of sounds.
I’m not surprised you need a lot of letters. Why don’t you
rest and maybe God will help you figure out the last
letters you need.”
Mesrob goes to take a nap, dreaming about the missing
letters. As he slept he had a dream that the hand of God
came down next to him and wrote the missing letters on
a smooth rock. When Mesrob woke up, he found the
rock!!!
“These are the missing letters! Now I finished creating an
Armenian alphabet with 38 letters! I can’t wait to start
translating the bible”
Activity 2:
Paint Armenian letters onto rocks.
According to tradition, while meditating in a cave near the village of
Palu, Mesrob had a vision, in which "the hand of God wrote the
alphabet in letters of fire."
http://www.armenianchurch.net/pdf/transletters.pdf
Language Information
Armenian is written horizontally from left to right.
There are a few minor differences in the pronunciation of the letters between two main dialects of
Armenian: Western and Eastern. Eastern Armenian speakers have kept the original pronunciations of the
letters, pronouncing each of the 38 letters quite distinctively. Western Armenian speakers pronounce a
few of the letters in the same way.
Classical Armenian distinguishes seven vowels: a, i, schwa, open e, closed e, o, and u. Armenian is rich
in combinations of consonants, especially in affricative sounds such as j, ch, and ts.
Western Armenian alphabet
Armenian punctuation
Grammar
Both classical Armenian and the modern spoken and literary dialects have a complicated system of
declining nouns, with six or seven noun cases but no gender. In modern Armenian the use of auxiliary
verbs to show tense (comparable to will in "he will go") has generally supplemented the inflected verbs
of classical Armenian. Negative verbs are conjugated differently from positive ones (as in English "he
goes" and "he does not go").