Simeon I of Yerevan

Simeon I of Yerevan or Simeon Yerevantsi (Armenian: Սիմէոն Ա Երեւանցի;^[a] 1710 – July 26, 1780) was the Catholicos of All Armenians from 1763 to 1780. In 1771, he founded a printing press at the Etchmiadzin Cathedral, the first in Armenia.^[1][2] According to Rouben Paul Adalian, the pontificate of Simeon I of Yerevan marked the reemergence of Etchmiadzin as a "truly important center of Armenian national affairs".^[3]

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Simeon I was born in 1710 in Yerevan, then under Safavid Iranian rule.^[1][4][5] According to his contemporaries and 19th-century sources, his family was of noble origin.^[6] 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.^[1][7] 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.^[1]

He was elected catholicos at Etchmiadzin in 1763.^[1] 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.^[1] 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.^[1] 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.^[1]

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.^[8] He was opposed to the activities of Indian Armenians Shahamir Shahamirian and Joseph Emin, who envisioned the reestablishment of an independent Armenian state.^[9][10]

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.^[11]

• 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.