Peter I of Armenia

Peter I (died 1058), known as Petros Getadardz (Պետրոս Ա. Գետադարձ) in Armenian, was the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church between 1019 and 1058. He was the brother of a former Catholicos Khachik I. He was the author of several works of sermons, anthems, and elegies on early Christian martyrs.

Peter I played an important political role in the last years of Bagratid Armenia. In 1022, he negotiated a treaty with the Byzantine emperor Basil II which willed the Bagratid kingdom of Ani to the Byzantine Empire after the death of the current king, Hovhannes-Smbat III. His pro-Byzantine stance caused significant controversy. In 1037, Hovhannes-Smbat unsuccessfully attempted to have him removed from office. After Hovhannes-Smbat's death, Peter pushed his successor Gagik II to go before the Byzantine emperor in Constantinople, in the meantime sending the Emperor the keys to the city of Ani. After the fall of Ani to the Byzantines, Peter was held in Constantinople for four years before being allowed to settle in Sebasteia, where he remained until his death. He was succeeded by his nephew Khachik II.

Although Peter I had hoped to strengthen his authority as Catholicos by helping the Byzantines annex Armenia, he soon found that the Empire also intended to end the independence of the Armenian Church. In his later years he commissioned a theological treatise criticizing dyophysitism and maintaining the miaphysite position of the Armenian Church.

Biography

Peter I was the brother of an earlier catholicos, Khachik I, and the nephew of another catholicos, Ananias I. He succeeded Catholicos Sarkis I in 1019, while the latter was still alive, and was anointed by his predecessor at Ani. The beginning of his patriarchate coincided with a succession crisis in the Bagratid kingdom of Ani: after King Gagik I's death in 1020, his sons Hovhannes-Smbat and Ashot IV competed for the throne. Peter took the side of Hovhannes-Smbat. In 1021, the crisis was resolved through the mediation of the Catholicos and the nobility, resulting in the division of the kingdom. The city of Ani and its surroundings went to the elder son, Hovhannes-Smbat, while the rest of the kingdom went to Ashot. In 1022, in order to prevent a Byzantine invasion of Armenia, Hovhannes-Smbat sent Peter I to Trebizond, where he concluded a treaty with Emperor Basil II. According to the treaty, the Kingdom of Ani would be pass to Byzantium after Hovhannes-Smbat's death. The treaty caused an outrage in Ani, forcing Peter I to move to Sebasteia, from which he returned to Ani only in 1026. In Trebizond, Peter I celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany in the presence of the Byzantine emperor; in Eastern Christianity, this holiday is accompanied by the blessing of holy water. The Armenian clergymen, led by Peter I, blessed the water at one part of the river, while the Byzantine clergymen stood downstream so that the water blessed by the non-Chalcedonian Armenians could be blessed again. (The 11th–12th centuries were a time of heightened Byzantine–Armenian theological disputes.) A tradition arose in Armenia that the river's course stopped and then reversed after Peter I's blessing, giving rise to his epithet Getadardz ('reversing the course of the river').

Peter I's pro-Byzantine policies brought on a new protests in 1031, and he was forced to move to Dzoravank (a former seat of the Armenian catholicos) in Vaspurakan, which by that time was under Byzantine control. In 1037, Hovhannes-Smbat recalled him and confined him in the fortress of Bjni, selecting Dioscorus, the abbot of Sanahin, as the new catholicos. But one year later Peter's supporters assembled a council of clergymen, princes and azats (lesser nobles), led by Joseph, the Catholicos of Albania (Ałuank). In 1039, the council reconfirmed Peter as Catholicos, after which Dioscorus returned to Sanahin.

In 1041, Hovhannes-Smbat and his brother died. In 1042, Gagik II, Hovhannes-Smbat's nephew, was crowned King of Armenia by Peter I in Ani. At this time, Peter appointed his own nephew, Khachik, as his locum tenens. In 1045, Peter—who was still loyal to the terms of the treaty he signed in Trebizond—and the nobleman Vest Sargis pushed Gagik II to go to Constantinople and present himself to the emperor Constantine IX Monomachos. After Gagik's departure, Peter sent the keys to the city of Ani to the Byzantine emperor. Historian Karen Matevosyan writes: "By conspiring in the destruction of Armenian statehood, Peter I hoped to strengthen his authority as Catholicos under the protection of Byzantium. However, the empire, which intended also to destroy the independence of the Armenian Church, sharply changed its attitude towards Peter I after capturing Ani and began to persecute him." At the end of 1046, Peter I was forced to leave Ani and move to Artze. In April 1047, he and Khachik were arrested and sent to Constantinople, but they were soon released. Convinced that this was not the end of the persecution, he left Khachik as his vicar in Ani and set out for Constantinople. After four years as an "honorary exile" in Constantinople, he was given permission to settle in Sebasteia, where he remained until his death in 1058. He was buried in the courtyard of Surb Nshan Monastery. He was succeeded by his nephew Khachik as Catholicos.

Literary heritage and personality

Seeing the hostile actions of the Byzantines against the Armenian Church after the fall of the Bagratid kingdom, Peter revised his earlier positions. He commissioned Anania of Sanahin to write Ban hakacharutean enddem erkabnakats (Discourse against the dyophysites), a treatise aimed at strengthening the Armenian Church's theological positions against Byzantine encroachments. He also had Anania compose a commentary on the letters of Paul the Apostle, and he had Hovhannes Kozern compose a history of the Bagratid house, which has not survived. Peter himself is credited with writing several sharakans (Armenian chants) for requiems and ceremonies dedicated to martyrs. Particularly famous is his sharakan dedicated to Saint Vardan Mamikonian and his companions, known by its incipit "Ariatsealk ar hakaraksn", which stands out for its melodiousness.

Peter I regularly corresponded with the prince and scholar Grigor Magistros, whose Hellenophile interests he shared. The Catholicos's letters reveal him to be one of the most learned and cultured men of his time. However, medieval Armenian historians wrote of his love for money and power, for which he was criticized during his lifetime.