Teresa Levonian Cole explores a monastery dedicated to
Armenian culture
It's not your usual complement of gondola- hailing
tourists that board Vaporetto No 20 from San Zaccaria, at 3.10pm. Most are
Italian, with a smattering of American art historians and visitors of a more
Levantine countenance. All exude an air of gravitas. Some disembark at the
university island of San Servolo, leaving a small phalanx to continue to
journey's end: the Armenian monastery island of San Lazzaro.
In the year of the centenary of the mass killing of
Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, the tiny island of San Lazzaro
degli Armeni assumes particular significance. Formerly a leper colony, it was
the gift of Doge Alviso Mocenigo to Mekhitar, an Armenian monk fleeing
persecution in Constantinople. He arrived in 1717, with 20 followers, to found
a monastery dedicated to the cultural and spiritual renaissance of the Armenian
people.
Even Napoleon, no friend to monasteries, was impressed,
and in 1797 he designated San Lazzaro an Academic Institution, saving it from
the axe. Today, just 12 vardapets (learned monks) and five novices remain as
custodians of 200,000 books, 4,500 rare manuscripts, and a disparate collection
of esoteric treasures. This Mother Church of the Mekhitarist order has become a
symbol of survival, and an important centre of Armenian scholarship.
We follow a trail of incense through cloisters lined with
Greek, Roman and Phoenician antiquities, past the headless statue of a princess
from Aquilea, and enter the barrel-vaulted church. Beyond the walls, closed to
the public, lies a secret garden of great repute. Our guide, Eleanora, tries to
unravel the complex theology behind this monastery. "Mekhitar," she
concludes, "wanted to heal the rift between the Eastern and Western
churches." But amid the splendid marble and mosaic, three low blind arches
from the original church of 1348 remind us of the island's insalubrious past.
"They were windows through which the lepers could follow Mass,"
explains Eleanora.
At the top of the ornate wrought iron "Staircase of
Mekhitar", the
Among the names of distinguished visitors to the
monastery's Libro d'Oro, is that of George Gordon Byron, who spent six months
here in 1816, studying Armenian – "the language to speak with God".
Lord Byron's erstwhile classroom is now occupied by a perfectly preserved
2,600-year-old Egyptian mummy, called Nemenkhet, who grins, humourlessly from
beneath an intricate mantle of coloured beads. Surrounded by bookcases bearing
the 23 gigantic volumes of Description de L'Egypte – an exhaustive
archaeological survey commissioned by Napoleon following his Egyptian campaign
– Nemenkhet no doubt feels at home.
For all its curiosities, the soul of the monastery
resides in its three libraries: from the magnificent Monumental Library, whose
pear-wood bookcases contain rare European tomes spanning every subject, through
Byron's Room, and on to the circular Manuscript Room, which houses one of the
world's most important collections of Armenian manuscripts, including Gospels
created in 862 for Queen Melket.
Most importantly, the library also holds early Armenian
translations of ancient texts – such as works by Philo, Hesiod and St John
Chrysostom – whose originals had been lost but were translated by the monks
into Latin and thus revived.
"If the Scriptures are rightly understood,"
wrote Lord Byron back in 1817, "it was in Armenia that Paradise was
placed." Indeed, if you visit San Lazzaro in summer, you can sample the
monks' rose-petal jam, which is made from the flowers in the monks' own private
Eden.
Getting there
Teresa Levonian Cole travelled with Kirker Holidays (020
7593 2283; kirkerholidays.com), which offers three nights' B&B at the
Gritti Palace, Venice, from £998pp, including flights and water-taxi transfers.
More information
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