In 1717 a young Armenian Catholic priest, Mekhitar Sebastatsi (Mekhitar of Sebastia [present-day Sivas, Turkey], 1676‒1749), founded a Benedictine Armenian Catholic Monastery on the island of San Lazzaro in Venice. Dedicated to the education and enlightenment of his people and devoted to his religion, Mekhitar wrote and published several works that became sources of inspiration and intellectual renewal throughout the centuries that followed. The monastery itself became a center for Armenian learning and publishing, which it has remained to the present day. In 1733 Mekhitar published a handsome Bible ...
