Nerses Shnorali

Nerses Shnorali 

Born 1102 in Tsovk Fortress in Cilicia; died 1172 or 1173 in Romkla Fortress in Cilicia. Armenian poet and church figure.

Nerses was a monk; he became a bishop in 1126, and catholicos in 1166. He wrote the narrative poems Elegy on the Capture of Edessa (1145–46), one of the best works of medieval Armenian poetry; On the Heavens and Heavenly Bodies (1160); Jesus the Son (published 1643); A Word on Faith (published 1647); and Credo (published 1652). He also wrote about 300 riddles in verse, most of which are taken from folklore, and religious hymns. The collection of prose Epistles, published in 1788, is of great historical and artistic importance. The works of Nerses Shnorali have been translated into many European languages.

WORKS

[Nerses Shnorhali.] Hawatov khostovanin. [London, 1780.]
Bank’ ch’ap’al. Venice, 1830.
In Russian translation:
Bogosluzhebnye kanony i pesni armianskoi vostochnoi tserkvi. Moscow, 1879.
Elegiia na vziatie Edessy. (Fragments.) In Antologiia armianskoi poezii s drevneishikh vremen do nashikh dnei. Moscow, 1940.

REFERENCE

Hakobyan, G. Nerses Shnorhali. Yerevan, 1964.