Page 191 - THE ARMENIAN CHURCH_Neat

192 The Armenian Church

between the Armenians and the Latins in
Cilicia gave birth to Latinophile tendencies
in the political and ecclesiastical spheres. At
various times, particularly when the Ar-
menians in Cilicia were in need of politico-
military help, Rome made several attempts
to bring the Armenian Church into union
with the Catholic Church. In the 13th Cen-
tury, Dominican friars and, later, Fran-
ciscans and Jesuits, engaged in missionary
activities among the Armenians in Armenia
and Cilicia. Encouraged by these activities,
an Armenian priest Mkhitar of Sebastia
(1676-1749) entered into communion with
Rome and established the Mkhitartist order,
first in Constantinople, then in Greece and
Venice. After his death, some of his fol-
lowers established a separate Mkhitarist
order, first in Trieste and then in Vienna.
This order, in spite of its early involvement
in an anti-Armenian Church campaign, has
rendered remarkable service to Armenian
culture and scholarship.
In 1740, with the election of Abraham
Arzivian as patriarch and his confirmation
by Pope Benedict XIV, the Armenian Catho-
lic Church was formally established as a
separate ecclesial entity in the monastery of
Bzommar, Lebanon. In 1830, through the in-
tervention of the French ambassador in
Constantinople, the Armenian Catholic com-
munity was legally recognized by the Otto-