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Simeon I of Yerevan or Simeon Yerevantsi (Armenian: Սիմէոն Ա Երեւանցի; 1710 – July 26, 1780) was the Catholicos of All Armenians (head of the Armenian Church) from 1763 to 1780. In 1771 he founded a printing press at the Etchmiadzin Cathedral, the first in Armenia. According to historian Rouben Paul Adalian, the pontificate of Simeon I of Yerevan marked the reemergence of Etchmiadzin as a "truly important center of Armenian national affairs".

Biography

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Simeon I was born in 1710 in Yerevan, then under Safavid Iranian rule. According to his contemporaries and 19th-century sources, his family was of noble origin. He received his education at the monastic school in Etchmiadzin, where he studied with his predecessor as catholicos, Hakob Shamakhetsi, and eventually joined the teaching staff. As a legate of the Holy See of Etchmiadzin, he travelled to Istanbul, New Julfa and Madras, the last of which was an important center of Armenian intellectual activity at the time.

He was elected catholicos at Etchmiadzin in 1763. At the time, due to the remoteness of Etchmiadzin in a frontier province of Iran, the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul had become the most important see of the Armenian Church. Simeon took active efforts in order to increase the role of the See of Etchmiadzin and reassert its primacy over the other sees, including by establishing a printing press in 1771, the very first on the territory of historical Armenia. Four years later he established a paper factory to meet the growing needs and costs of the printing press. He furthermore improved the monastic school, which would become a major center of theological learning in the 19th century.

Catholicos Simeon was particularly hostile towards Armenian Catholics and sought to prevent the spread of Catholicism among Armenians, frequently and harshly criticizing them in his written works. He was opposed to the activities of Indian Armenians Shahamir Shahamirian and Joseph Emin, who envisioned the reestablishment of an independent Armenian state.

Simeon I died on July 26, 1780, on the holiday of Vardavar. In accordance with his wishes, his former student Ghukas Karnetsi was elected his successor as catholicos.

References

Notes

1. Reformed orthography: Սիմեոն Ա Երևանցի

Citations

1. ^ Adalian 2010, p. 543.
2. Hacikyan et al. 2005, p. 151.
3. Adalian 2010, p. 300.
4. Bournoutian, George (1982). Eastern Armenia in the last decades of Persian rule, 1807-1828. Undena Publications. pp. 7–8. ISBN 978-0890031230. Thus until the Afghan invasion and the subsequent crumbling of the Safavids in 1722, Eastern Armenia was under Persian rule.
5. Floor & Herzig 2012, p. 376.
6. Aslanian 2004, p. 27.
7. Aslanian 2004, p. 28.
8. Aslanian 2004, p. 44.
9. Aslanian 2004, pp. 71–76.
10. Khachikyan 1972, p. 206.
11. Aghaneantsʻ 1894, p. 195 (ՃՂԵ).

Sources

• Adalian, Rouben Paul (2010). Historical Dictionary of Armenia (2 ed.). Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0810874503.
• Aghaneantsʻ, Giwt, ed. (1894). "Simēon Katʻoghikosi Kensagrutʻiwně" [Biography of Catholicos Simeon]. Diwan Hayotsʻ Patmutʻean (in Armenian). 3. Tiflis.
• Aslanian, Sebouh (2004). "Dispersion History and the Polycentric Nation։ The Role of Simeon Yerevantsi's Girk or Koči partavčar in the 18th Century Nation Revival". Bazmavēp. 39. OCLC 79389306 – via Academia.edu.
• Floor, Willem; Herzig, Edmund (2012). Iran and the World in the Safavid Age. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1850439301.
• Hacikyan, Agop Jack; Basmajian, Gabriel; Franchuk, Edward S.; Ouzounian, Nourhan (2005). The heritage of Armenian literature. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-2815-6. OCLC 42477084.
• Khachikyan, L. S.; et al., eds. (1972). Hay zhoghovrdi patmutʻyun [History of the Armenian People] (in Armenian). Vol. 4. Yerevan: Armenian SSR Academy of Sciences.

• People from Yerevan
• 1710 births
• 1780 deaths
• Catholicoi of Armenia
• Persian Armenians
• 18th-century people from Safavid Iran
• 18th-century Iranian businesspeople