ECCLESIASTICAL AND POLITICAL ACTIVITY OF CATHOLICOS PETROS I GETHADARDZ 1019-1045

Abstract

The article investigates the activities of the Armenian Catholicos Petros Gethadardz (1019-1059) on the eve of the fall of the Armenian Bagratid Kingdom, 1019-1045. Petros I, nicknamed “Gethadardz” (i.e., turning back the river), ascended the throne during the lifetime of the previous Patriarch Sargis Sevantsi (992-1019), violating the traditional order of succession of Catholicoses. He manages to relatively defuse internal political tensions in the country and temporarily mitigate the severity of external challenges. In the Armenian-Byzantine ecclesiastical and political relations, Petros Gethadardz undertook diplomatic missions many times. In 1022, he negotiated with the Byzantine Emperor Basil II (976-1025) in Trebizond and gave him the will of the Armenian king Hovhannes-Smbat (1018-1041), according to which the kingdom of Ani was to pass to Byzantium after the death of the latter. By this, the invasion of Ani by the Byzantine army was prevented and the existence of the kingdom was temporarily extended. In 1037 as a result of the tension between the political and ecclesiastical sovereigns of Armenia, Petros was dethroned and imprisoned. However, at the request of the clergy and many secular people, he was released and restored to the Patriarchal throne. Rejecting the Chalcedonian aspirations of the Byzantines, he does not make the Armenian Monophysite religion an object of theological "bargaining". After the death of the crowned brothers Ashot IV and Hovhannes-Smbat (1041), Petros cooperated with the national forces and, anointing Gagik II as king in 1042, tries to prevent the fall of the Bagratid kingdom. Peter Gethadardz's influence on the internal and external affairs of the country was significant, which was directly proportional to the enormous economic and material wealth of the ecclesiastical state led by him. During his reign, the economic potential of the Armenian Church reached an unprecedented level. The clergyman, who was famous as a miracle worker, was an ideological friend of one of the most educated people of the time, the Armenian prominent military, political figure and philosopher of the 11th century Grigor Magistros. Medieval Armenian historiography, which does not have the necessary amount of information about the history of relations between the Armenian secular and spiritual authorities and is also insufficiently aware of the Armenian-Byzantine diplomatic relations, has an ambiguous attitude towards Petros Gethadardz.