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 borde e), 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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