Year 897 (DCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.
Isaac or Sahak of Armenia (354–439) was Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He is sometimes known as "Isaac the Great," and as "Sahak the Parthian" owing to his Parthian origin.
Babai the Great was an early church father of the Church of the East. He set several of the foundational pillars of the Church, revived the monastic movement, and formulated its Christology in a systematic way. He served as a monastic visitor and coadjutor with Mar Aba as unofficial heads of the Church of the East after Catholicos Gregory until to 628 AD, leaving a legacy of strong discipline and deep religious Orthodoxy. He is revered in the modern Assyrian Church of the East.
Gugark was the 13th province of the ancient kingdom of Armenia. It now comprises parts of northern Armenia, northeast Turkey, and southwest Georgia.
Smbat I was the second king of the medieval Kingdom of Armenia of the Bagratuni dynasty, and son of Ashot I. He is the father of Ashot II and Abas I.
Moran Mar Baselios Marthoma Mathews II was the Supreme head of Indian Orthodox Church, also known as Malankara Orthodox Church. He was the 89th successor to the Holy Apostolic Throne of St. Thomas and Catholicos of the East and 19th Malankara Metropolitan.
Moran Mar Baselios Marthoma Didymus I was Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan from 2005 to 2010. Didymos I was consecrated as Metropolitan bishop on 24 August 1966 at Kolencherry St. Peter's & St. Paul's Church and served as Metropolitan of the Malabar Diocese of the church from 1968. He was the seventh Catholicos since the Catholicate of the East was relocated to India and 111th in the lineage of Catholicose of the East in the Apostolic throne of St. Thomas. Didymus I was the 20th Malankara Metropolitan of the Church.
Gagik II was the last Armenian king of Bagratuni dynasty. Known as Gagik II King of Ani, a juvenile at the time, he was enthroned as Gagik II and ruled for a brief period from 1042 to 1045 before the Bagratid dynasty rule collapsed in Armenia.
Hovhannes Draskhanakerttsi was Catholicos of Armenia from 897 to 925, and a noted chronicler and historian. He is called John V the Historian, and is known for his History of Armenia. It was printed at the end of the seventeenth century. There is a recent English translation (1987) by Krikor Maksoudian.
Catholicos George II of Garni, Kevork II in Armenian, was the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church between 877 and 897. Hovhannes Draskhanakerttsi calls him an honorable man who was selected from the Catholicos's household by Prince Ashot I of Armenia to succeed Patriarch Zacharias. George anointed and crowned Ashot I when he was declared King of Armenia in 884. Upon King Ashot's death, George went to Bagaran to preside over his funeral. Ashot's heir Smbat I, who had been away at war, missed his father's funeral and was very grieved. Catholicos George went to comfort King Smbat at Yerazgavors, where he would later also preside at his coronation. This enraged the sparapet Abas who is said to have spread false rumors about the Catholicos in an attempt to bring him down. Abas tried to convince a holy man named Mashdotz from Sevanavank to join his conspiracy against the Catholicos and said he would name him Catholicos if it was successful. Mashdotz wrote a long letter in response, rejecting the offer to rebel against the Catholicos and chided Abas for his attempt. Hovhannes Draskhanakerttsi reports at this point Abas was struck by an illness and died, as if by divine wrath, and the other conspirators repented to the Catholicos out of fear. Around this time Dvin was hit by an earthquake, as it had been during Patriarch Zacharias's time, but this time it destroyed the church of the Catholicosate, as well as many other buildings and people. Afshin, the Caliph's representative in Atropatene, who had made an agreement of friendship with Smbat, was worried at various victories Smbat was having and that he might not remain faithful to their agreement if he became too strong. Afshin invaded Armenia and reached Dvin. War broke out and Catholicos George went to meet Afshin in an attempt to get him to reconsider. Afshin attempted to get George to bring King Smbat to him for a discussion, but the nakharars advised him not to go for fear of a trap. They also begged the Catholicos not to return to Afshin but George insisted. Afshin saw that the Catholicos could not bring the King to him so he had George bound with iron fetters and handcuffs. Afshin marched against King Smbat and they met in battle, after which they agreed that Smbat would pay royal taxes to Afshin and reconfirm his oath. Afshin did not return the Catholicos however, who remained bound and suffered greatly. After two months of torture and prayers a ransom was demanded for the Catholicos's release. His bishops, including Hovhannes Draskhanakerttsi, approached the nakhararas and the ransom was gathered. George had been brought to Paytakaran where the ransom was paid and he was returned to Armenia. Catholicos George died in Vaspurakan in 897 and his body was taken to the cemetery of Joroy Vank in Tosp. The king of his associates then elected Mashdotz to succeed him, the same Mashdotz who had previously rejected the chance to overthrow his predecessor.
Saint Geevarghese Mar Dionysius of Vattasseril, born Geevarghese was the Malankara Metropolitan (primate) of the Malankara Orthodox Church. Vattasseril Geevarghese Mar Dionysius is popularly known as "Malankara Sabha Bhasuran", a title which the Church bestowed on him in recognition of his contribution to Malankara Church. Vattasseril Thirumeni was a man of prayer, determination and dynamism. He was the greatest advocate of sovereignty and autonomy of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church.
The Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia, also known as Bagratid Armenia, was an independent state established by Ashot I Bagratuni in the early 880s following nearly two centuries of foreign domination of Greater Armenia under Arab Umayyad and Abbasid rule. With the two contemporary powers in the region, the Abbasids and Byzantines, too preoccupied to concentrate their forces in subjugating the people of the region and the dissipation of several of the Armenian nakharar noble families, Ashot was able to assert himself as the leading figure of a movement to dislodge the Arabs from Armenia.
Holy Mother of God Katoghike Church of Avan is a ruined 6th century church located in the Avan district of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. It is the oldest surviving church inside Yerevan's city limits.
Sahak III, was the Catholicos of Armenia from 677 through 703. According to the historian Hovhannes Draskhanakerttsi Sahak III was alive in Damascus, where he had gone to discuss peace instead of making war, while a Muslim warrior Okbay was moving with his army through the area of Vanand when the people there massacred them. Okbay returned to the Caliph to raise a large army against Armenia and destroy its churches and kill the population. Sahak asked to be allowed to go to Okbay to dissuade him from doing so, but fell ill when he arrived in Kharan. He wrote a letter imploring Okbay to not carry out his plan. Before he died he asked to have the letter placed in his palm, so that when Okbay came to receive it he would be taking it from his dead hand and perhaps reconsider. It is said that when Okbay arrived Sahak's hand moved to extend the letter to Okbay, who was impressed and carried out Sahak's wishes and sent Sahak's body back to Armenia with a letter to its princes pardoning them. Armenia was saved through Sahak's death and he was greatly honored.
Gregory II the Martyrophile,, was the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church between 1066 and 1105.
Drazark monastery, a destroyed monastic complex of Armenian Apostolic Church in Adana province of modern Turkey, which lies about 24 km. north of the city of Sis - historical capital of Cilician Armenia, at one of inaccessible slopes of Cilician Taurus range.
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
