MESROB (MESROP, MASHTOZ): The inventor of the Armenian alphabet, founder of Armenian literature, and one of the original translators of the Bible into that language; b. at Hazegaa (Hatzik) in the province . of Taron, Armenia, c. 350; d. at Valarsabad Feb. 19, 441. He was a son of a certain Wardan, and studied Greek, Persian, and Syriac under the Catholicos Nerses I. the Great (see Armenia, III., § 3), whose secretary he became. After the death of Nerses, he was for seven years a royal seoretary under King Vramshapuh, having under his charge matters concerned with the Persian tongue. He then followed his bent for the ascetic life and entered a monastery, but very soon from the Catholicos Sahag (Isaac) the Great, successor of Nerses, he received the commission to preach the Gospel, which he did in various parts of the country. In this work his attention was called to the lack of Armenian Christian literature and indeed of a vehicle for it, since Syriac and Persian were used respectively in the churches and at court. He set himself to supply the need of an Armenian script and provided an alphabet. His important work for Armenia having become known in Georgia and Albania, he was invited thither by Bakur, the ruler of Georgia, and by the Archbishop Moses, and created the Georgian and later the Albanian alphabet, one result of which was the foundation of schools in Albania for the teaching of Christianity under the patronage of King Arswagh and Bishop Jeremiah. Returning then to Armenia, Mearob assisted Sahag in translating the entire Bible into Armenian (see Bible Versions, A, VI.).

The political and religious persecutions set in motion by the Persian king after the death of VramEhapuh drove Sahag and Mesrob for a time into Grecian Armenia. After the subsidence of these disturbances, both returned to their own region and engaged in translating into Armenian Syriac

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and Greek patristic work. Pupils were sent to Alexandria and Athens to lay a foundation in accurate knowledge of Greek for correct translation of works into Armenian.

Mesrob was a zealous opponent of heresy, and brought about the exile of the heretical teachers Barbarianus and Theodius. He was also active in promoting the monastic life, and many monasteries were built on his initiative. The Armenian alpha bet invented by him has thirty-six characters, arranged in general after the order of the Greek alphabet with signs peculiar to the Armenian in serted. It was based neither on the Syriac nor on the Middle Persian, but on the Greek. The script is written from left to right. See Armenia, II., 1-3.

K. Kessler.

Bibliography: The Life by Goriun exists in Germ. transl. by Welts, Tübingen, 1841 (weighted with legend). The "History of Armenia" by Moses of Chorene (a pupil of Mesrob), printed often (e.g., Venice, 1827), is found in translations-Latin by Whiston, London, 1738; French (with Armenian text) by Le Vaillant de Florival, Venice, 1842; German by Lauer, Regensburg, 1842. Consult: E. Bort;, Saint Laaare, pp. 90 sqq., Venice, 1835; V. Langlois, Notice cur Is convent armtnien de Tile S. Lazare h Venice, Venice 1889; J. Nirschl, Patrologie, iii. 215-262, Mainz, 1885; KL, i. 1347-48, viii. 1305-09; and the literature under Armenia, especially the works by P. Lukiaa Somal, M. Patcanian, V. Langloie, and F. Nbve.