The Armenian Treasure Trove of San Lazzaro’s Island by Dr. Sarita Melkon Maldjian and Dr. Agnes Samuel Melkon
One of the hallmark characteristics of almost all Armenians is that they are educated and cultured in some way. It seems unnecessary for any Armenian from anywhere in the world to say to others, “I am educated in [medicine, business, law, finance, etc.]” or, “I am an [artist, dancer, musician, master chess player, etc.].” Armenians always seem to feel the need to pronounce their education and accomplishments, as if accolades of great praise should follow, when this is just what we do and who we are. Sadly, we, as a people, feel the need to make these pronouncements because of our perpetual, centuries-old suppression, genocides and the overt denial of them from the Turkish and Azerbaijan governments. We must “prove” to the world that we are worthy of attention since we are, as the Armenian novelist William Saroyan has described us, “this small tribe of unimportant people, whose history is ended, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, whose literature is unread, whose music is unheard, whose prayers are no longer uttered.”
The last place I ever expected to find “proof” of being truly Armenian was in Italy. Born into a family of international travelers, I (Sarita) grew up with my father, Samuel, constantly praising the beauty and splendor of Italy as he repeatedly stated, “You must go there. Italy is my favorite country.” When the day finally came that I would embark on what had turned out to be my first of three trips to Italy, my father immediately and emphatically stated, “You must go to the Mekhitarist monastery of San Lazzaro’s island.” He continued to expound on its splendor, as he felt the monastery truly represented who we really are as Armenians.
This seemed odd to me, since I always associated my “Armenianism” with Armenia proper, Artsakh and the many generous Arab countries who took us in with open arms as we fled for our lives trying to escape and survive the genocides of 1895 through 1915 (with massacres beginning well before that time) and the many wars over our lost region of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh (most recently in 2023). As a result, when my travel companions and I ventured to Venice, the first item on my agenda was to book us the 20-minute water vaporetto from St. Mark’s Square across the Venetian Lagoon, a closed bay of the Adriatic Sea, to witness what all the hubbub was about.
Upon arrival, I soon realized that this island is the epitome of Armenian culture, art, and education. The monks who live here preserve their sacred books and objects with their life and hold daily Christian worship services as Armenians have been doing since we became the first nation to convert to Christianity in 301 AD. The only difference is that, on this island, we went untouched throughout history by the many wars and land invasions of Turkey and Azerbaijan. As a result, San Lazzaro has become the oldest Armenian colony in Western Europe. It is a magical place, timeless in its artifacts, sacred as an intellectual, cultural, spiritual center, and most of all a true representation of “Armenianism” because on San Lazzaro we are victors instead of victims.

The statue of Mekhitar at San Lazzaro. Jean-Pierre Dalbera / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0
The founder of the monastery is from our ancestral location in pre-genocide Armenia, Sepastia. Mekhitar was only 24 when he founded the Armenian Mekhitarist Congregation dedicated to St. Mary in Constantinople in 1701. He and his disciples were sent to San Lazzaro in 1717. Upon his death, the “once-barren island” was transformed into a center of Armenian culture, according to Vahan M. Kurkjian’s book, A History of Armenia. The island commemorates Mekhitar in the form of a bronze cast statue with arms outstretched, inviting all to the island.
As we began to venture further towards the building itself, we knew we were walking on sacred ground with the appearance of a beautiful stone cross at the entrance. Once converted to Christianity, Armenia contributed innumerable carved stone crosses (khachkars), chapels, churches, monasteries, literature, and the cherished gospel books to the ancient world. The stone crosses of Armenia, like this one which greeted us at the entrance of the monastery, were the central point of worship and prayer. In Fr. Dajad Yardemian’s book, San Lazzaro Island: The Monastic Headquarters of the Mekhitarian Order, he states that the stone cross at the entrance of the head monastery was gifted by His Holiness Vazken I, Catholicos of All Armenians. There are two oil-burning lamps with eternal flames on either side of this khachkar, as it was a memorial gift to mark the 50th anniversary of the Armenian genocide of 1915, honoring the millions of murdered victims.
Once inside the monastery, on the tours given by the proud monks, we were made keenly aware of the predominance of aspects of the medieval art period. The pieces in the monastery’s collection portray the spirituality of this unique era that opened to the world the concept of holy beauty. From early Christianity, artists, scribes, and monks with creative and spiritual inspiration depicted through many mediums the Blessed Mother, the life and death of Jesus, and the many saints of each Catholic, Orthodox, and Apostolic church.
One of these mediums, prized in the monastery, is the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages. Each church had its own individual style which gave its unique signature, identifying the country of origin and, at times, the name of the monk, scribe, and/or artist of the country or region. According to Dr. Sirarpie Der Nersessian, a scholar of Armenian art history, “The general evolution of Armenian painting can be traced primarily through illuminated manuscripts.” Some of these illuminated manuscripts hold cherished depictions of the Bible. The bindings of the medieval manuscripts in the San Lazzaro collection are as intrinsically meaningful as their written and illuminated contents. They were finely crafted in silver, ivory, and gold, embellished with ornate designs and decorated with precious stones, thus rendering them sacred in every way.
One manuscript that was of great interest to me was ritual text no. 457, identifying clerical Armenian female deaconesses. This famous Armenian manuscript in the San Lazzaro collection has been studied and written about in several documents. This is due to the fact that the Mekhitarist monastery has the third-largest collection of these manuscripts in the world. Dr. Maria Christine Arat wrote about ritual text no. 457 in detail in her dissertation, The Deaconesses of the Armenian Church in Canonical Perspective. Several decades later, Fr. Abel Oghlukian continued more research on the role of the Armenian deaconess in his book, The Deaconess in the Armenian Church: A Brief Survey, where he highlights that within this manuscript, in the rubric for “ordination of those worthy to be monastics,” there is a section which states that nuns should be vested by the deaconess. This manuscript clearly reads: “One should give women the schema and perform the same rite. But let the deaconess perform this bare-headed and cover their brow with a black veil to the eyebrows.” Since women all over the world in the Catholic, Orthodox, and Apostolic churches are predominantly being denied clerical positions of ordination, this manuscript was refreshing to see.
Also on public display were the art gallery museum and library, where there are volumes, manuscripts, and artifacts from all over the world. Inside the library there are some 170,000 volumes, including 4,500 manuscripts. In the gallery museum are several unique archaeological finds, including Armenian paintings and artifacts, a plaster by sculptor Antonio Canova depicting the son of Napoleon Bonaparte, Etruscan vases, rare ancient Chinese pieces, and the Egyptian mummy of Nemen Khet Amen that dates to somewhere between 800 and 430 BCE, complete with its sarcophagus.
What was unique about this mummy, assumed to be a priest at the Amon Temple in Karnak, Egypt, is that it has gone untouched by viruses throughout the centuries. In 1983, the mummies on display in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) in Cairo were hit by some kind of virus. As a result, my family and I could not see their faces during our visit at that time. Dr. Melkon was there, though, in 1964, and was able to see these same mummies uncovered in all their glory prior to the virus. The fact that the mummy of Nemen Khet Amen has remained “healthy” this entire time is a true testament to the diligence and caregiving of the monks and caretakers on the island.
Another striking element was the ceiling of the library, where we admired a splendid fresco painting of Giambattista Tiepolo depicting an allegory of peace and justice. This artist’s reputation and wealth during his life has raised the status and value of the locations where his revolutionized frescos live, thus rendering the library at San Lazzaro equal to that of the Vatican.

Frontispiece of an Armenian and English grammar coauthored by Lord Byron and Fr. Paschal Aucher at San Lazzaro and displayed at the Keats-Shelley House in Rome in October 2023. Photo by Michael Centore
The museum’s large collection of porcelain, tile pieces, bowls, pitchers, cups, incense burners, hanging ornaments, and more from Keutahia, an Armenian province now in western Turkey, are some of the finest in the world. According to Christina Maranci’s The Art of Armenia: An Introduction, “During the 17th–18th centuries, ceramic making flourished in the city of Keutahia, 200 kilometers southeast of Constantinople. A substantial corpus of works with accompanying Armenian inscriptions offers insight into Keutahia workshops. These tiles were made for the decoration of churches, mosques and tombs across the empire.”
As an English and theology professor, one of my favorite details about the island was its connection to the famous British poet Lord Byron. In an article about her visit in 2020, Janet Simmonds relates:
Byron arrived in Venice in November 1816. He was tired and jaded by social scandals and a failed marriage. He visited the monks at San Lazzaro and immersed himself in the study and learning of the Armenian language. As a “thank you” and repayment for the monks’ kindness Byron covered the costs of printing an Armenian-English grammar book. He spent the winter of 1816/1817 studying Armenian and by early 1817 he was able to translate from Armenian into English. His study and desk remain as they were in Byron’s day, just over 200 years ago. It is an intriguing window into the life of a British poet, whose brief stay with the monks enabled him to learn a new skill and refocus his artistic and literary skills. Having arrived in Venice in no mood to write poetry Byron’s stay on San Lazzaro was a period of learning and inspiration. By the spring of 1817 Byron was writing poetry again[.]
After absorbing so much from this hidden treasure trove and then taking a stroll around the idyllic grounds, we scrambled to take the last vaporetto of the day back to St. Mark’s Square. The monks emphatically told us to depart in peace. My father’s words rang in my ears for the remainder of our time on vacation, and I firmly validated his great love for Italy in complete agreement upon my return to the States.
So much more can be said about this magical place. I’ve merely touched upon a day’s journey back in time, when most Armenians were known to be academic, cultured, Christian scholars in villages and cities throughout a land that was 10 times its current size. As we as a people struggle to regain our original reputation, I pray that someday we will be universally known for this again. It is hard for a nation to progress out of victimhood when its history is denied by its perpetrators. Only on timeless San Lazzaro did we remain who we were meant to always be to the world, “truly Armenian.” ♦
Dr. Sarita Melkon Maldjian is a professor of the Core and the English departments at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. She is an advocate for Catholic school education and ordaining women in the Catholic, Orthodox, and Apostolic churches. She and her family are active members in the Armenian Apostolic Church, and all of her children have attended Catholic schools from pre-K through grade 12. She and her family are professional classical musicians and have performed all over the tri-state area. She holds her master’s degree in theology and doctorate degree in Biblical studies and music pedagogy from Drew University, Madison, New Jersey.
Dr. Agnes Samuel Melkon is an artist and art historian specializing in illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages. Her dissertation is a featured special-collection document at the Morgan Library Museum in New York. She is a lecturer in the tri-state area.
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