[151] However, a conflict arose since some said that [Lewon] should be buried in the royal city of Sis, while other said [the burial should be] at the monastery called Akner, since the king greatly loved that monastery because of the goodness of its discipline and its marvellous prayers. Now some did not think that monastery a proper site for it was located near the border and there were many enemies around it. "Perhaps", they said, "they will come, remove his body and burn it with fire because of the many grudges they have against him". Finally, they all united. They took [Lewon's] body and buried it in the city of Sis, while his heart and intestines were taken to the mon- astery called Akner.

Thus did the valiant, ever-triumphant king Lewon repose in piety.

The kat'oghikos and the princes brought the son of the lord of Antioch, named prince (brindz) and gave him in marriage the daughter of king Lewon, thus making him their king. The youth's name was Phillip and the queen's name was Zabel. When [g188] [Phillip] had ruled the kingdom for four years, his father deceived him and took from him the crown of king Lewon and the [152] royal paghat (? tent) which they erected on special occasions, and other treasures of gold and silver. As soon as the princes saw that the man was not loyal to the kingdom, they arrested and held him until he return the crown and treasures. But his father gave neither the one nor the other, and did not aid his son in any way. And they left him there [in prison] until he died.

The great prince Kostandin convinced the kat'oghikos and some of the other grandees to enthrone his own son Het'um, a physically robust and handsome lad. But the queen did not consent to being the wife of a child. She defied him and went to Seleucia, to the Franks there; for her mother was of Frankish nationality, and from the island of Cyprus.

Kostandin took all the troops and besieged the city until they unwillingly surrendered the queen. Kostandin took her and married her to his son, to whom she bore children. The woman was extremely pious and sensible--a lover of all God-fearing and poor folk--who constantly fasted and prayed. [g189]

Once his son Het'um had taken the rule of the kingdom, the great prince Kostandin himself assumed all the concerns of the kingdom, arranging everything wisely. Some he made obedient with affection, while the disobedient were eliminated, making some into fugitives, killing others. He made friendship [153] and union with the sultan of Rum, whose name was 'Ala al-Din (Aladin), who had many lands under his control. Kostandin did the same with all the neighboring peoples, and pacified the lands everywhere.

He established as general his eldest son Smbat, and made the other son prince of the kingdom. And all the monks in the country were unconcerned about their physical necessities; for he himself gave them everything they needed, so that they might occupy themselves with prayers and worship.

The country became filled with skilled and unskilled men who assembled from all sides fleeing the destruction wrought by the T'at'ars who had come from the northeast and overthrown the entire world.

After this, kat'oghikos Yovhannnes also died, having occupied the throne for eighteen years. The great prince with the king seated lord Kostandin on the throne of saint Gregory. He was a virtuous mild man of blessed behavior, who conducted [g190] himself with goodness and regulated the order of the Church with orthodoxy. Kostandin was revered by all peoples, not only by Christians, but also by Tachiks.

[154] Once it happened that the three sultans went to the bordee), is lit up by the command of God each Easter. It happens to this day. [g213]

However, the overseers of the city, who were Tachiks, asked the Christians: "When is your Easter"? Those who were Greek and other denominations replied: "This Sunday". But the Armenians said: "Not this Sunday, next Sunday". Now the Tachik overseer was a wise man and so ordered all the lights in that temple extinguished, the doors closed and sealed with his ring, and he forbade anyone to enter, in order to determine which group was right.

[178] Now when the day arrived and passed into evening, they awaited the illumination of the lamp. When it did not light up, the prince ordered all except the Armenians to be insultingly removed and severely beaten as ignorant and false people. When a week passed and the next Sunday (which the Armenians had said was Easter) arrived, while they were praying at the tenth hour, [divine] inspiration came upon them and at once the lamp lit up without human hands touching it. The Armenians were jubilant. Once more the Tachiks beat the others, and everyone praised the wisdom and faith of the Armenians while they derided and jeered at the Greeks in all the cities under Tachik rule. The men who had been sent by the Georgian monarch and by the general observed this, [g214] returned and related what they had seen. The great general Zak'are rejoiced as did all the Armenians in the [Georgian] army. And the true faith of the Armenians was strengthened further.

In this year the renowned and joyous church of Getik was completed. It was built by vardapet Mxit'ar with his religious community with the aid of Vaxt'ang Xach'enats'i, lord of Hat'erk' and his brothers Grigor, Grigoris, Xoydan, and Vasak and other pious princes, Dawit' and Sadun (the sons of K'urd) as well as their sister named Arzu xat'un [179] (Vaxt'ang Hat'erk'ets'i's wife).

This woman did much to help. She and her daughters made a beautiful curtain of the softest goats' hair as a covering for the holy altar; it was a marvel to behold. It was dyed with variegated colors like a piece of carving with pictures accurately drawn on it showing the Incarnation of the Savior and other saints. It astonished those who saw it. Beholders would bless God for giving women the knowledge of tapestry-making and the genius of embroidery, as is said in Job, for it was no less than the altar ornaments [g215] Beseliel and Eghiab fashioned [Exodus 36.1]; nor is it bold to say so, for the same spirit moved them both. Not only did the woman make a curtain for this church at Getik, but for other churches as well, Haghbat, Makaravank' and Dadivank'; for she was a great lover of the Church, and very pious.

The pre-consecration festival at Getik was conducted with great throngs of people attending. Among those present was Yovhannes, the bishop of Haghbat, a virtuous and blessed man as well as a multitude of priests and servitors. And they consecrated the church in the name of the blessed Mother of God.

[180] They also constructed a beautiful parvis of dressed stones for the church. The great general Zak'are and his brother Iwane provided much support, for they held the princeship of the district and they so loved the holy vardapet (for in confession, Zak'are was his spiritual son). They gave the church [extensive] land bounded by streams [extending] from mountain to mountain, as well as a mine in Abasadzor, and Zoradzor in the district of Bjni, and Ashawan above the monastery.

They themselves also built a village close to a small lake of immense depth, naming the village after the lake Tzrkatsov (for in it swam many marsh-loving, mud-loving reptiles), [g216] as well as another smaller village below the mon- astery which they named Urhelanj. They also built many other chapels in the name of blessed Apostles and the holy Hfip'sime.

Because Mxit'ar loved deserts and uninhabited places, he made his home distant from the monastery. There he built a small wooden church in the name of the Holy Spirit. In his old age he built a church as a mausoleum for himself above the monastery on the right. It was made with dressed stones and lime and named for the Resurrection of Christ.



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