Panteleev S.A., Deacon. Gladzor Monastery - Armenia's Medieval University

Abstract

In Armenia, as in any other country, the history of education has seen ups and downs. It is not always the case that the rise of education and the flowering of scholarship occurred in times of political stability in a state. An example of this is the emergence of Gladzor High School during the Mongol invasion of Armenia. This educational centre had only existed for about sixty years, but its contemporaries called it a university. This "Second Athens" owed its prosperity not so much to the patronage of the Syunik princes, who gained a measure of independence from the conquerors, as to the dedication of its rectors, Nerses Meshetsi and Yesaya Nichitsa. Despite the relative desolation of Gladzor's location, people came here to study the sciences, theology, singing and the art of miniature painting from various regions of Armenia, sometimes quite distant.