Mekhitar of Sebaste

Mekhitar of Sebaste (also: Mekhitar; born February 7, 1676 in Sebaste, † April 27, 1749 on the island of San Lazzaro in Venice ) was an Armenian Apostolic, Armenian Catholic priest and later founder of the order.

Manuk ( baptismal name ) took on his entrance into the monastery Surb NSAN ( Holy Cross ) at the monk's name Mekhitar, the Armenian " Comforter " means ( epithet of the Holy Spirit ). He founded in 1701 in Constantinople, Opel, now Istanbul, the Armenian Catholic congregation of the later named after him Mechitarists. In 1711 she was called by Pope Clement XI. accepted 1717 Mechitarists found a home on the island of San Lazzaro in Venice. Mekhitar and his fellow brothers acted as a significant translator, grammarian and philologist, and laid with the foundations for a new flowering of Armenian Scholarship in the 18th and 19th centuries.