Naregatsi Art Institute

KRIKOR NAREGATSI - St. Gregory of Nareg - (945-1003 A.D.)

Krikor Naregatsi is one of the most powerful spiritual personas of Armenia born in the province of Vaspurakan, in the village Nareg around 945. He was a mystical writer, poet, musician, and philosopher.

He received his education under the guidance of his father, Bishop Khosrov Antzevatsi, author of the earliest commentary on the Divine Liturgy, and from his maternal uncle Anania Vartabed, Abbot of Nareg Monastery south of Lake Van. At an early age, he and his two brothers entered the monastic life and grew up in an intellectual and religious atmosphere. He became a priest in the same Monastery of Nareg where he lived till the end of his life. A chapel was built at the place of his hermitage, where his grave lies.

Naregatsi's works include a Commentary on the Song of Songs, panegyrics on the Virgin Mary, the twelve Apostles and Seventy-Two Disciples and St. James of Nisibis. He wrote anthems in honor of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Church and the Holy Cross. Further works include hymns, sacred odes and 36 poem. As a musician, Naregatsi brought new life to the old school of the medieval Armenian vocal art.

Naregatsi's genius has reflected in his most famous work and masterpiece the "Book of Lamentations" more commonly known as "Nareg". For centuries "Nareg" has been regarded a holy book. It consists of ninety-five separate Lamentations or prayers, which are the writer's monologues with God. It is believed that Holy Nareg has a curing power and each of the 95 chapters or prayers is a cure for a certain emotional or physical illness. Holy Nareg is often put under the pillow to protect a person from Evil.

"Book of Lamentations" has been translated into more than thirty languages. His style and dominance of the Armenian language cannot be excelled. Naregatsi's writings have been an inspiration to many Armenian intellectuals for centuries. Some of the more famous ones are Nerses Shnorhali, Frig, Gosdantin Yerzngatsi in the 12th -13th centuries, and poets Misak Medzarentz, Siamanto, Yeghisheh Charentz in the 20th century.

The "Book of Lamentations" is written in the form of a free verse, which is typical to old Armenian poetry. However, certain sections are written in rhymes. The poem is a turbulent pondering of the mind, where each section is an emotional and intellectual limitless outpour. The core of the poem is the inner world of man. Through limitless confession and description of infinite sinful life man leads, the writer tries to approach God and beg mercy. His breathless and tumultuous flow of confession is presented in an unprecedented use of the Armenian language. Some of the terms Naregatsi used in his poem do not exist in any Armenian dictionary. Often, he created words, which were much more expressive than any poetic phrase.

Naregatsi lived 300 years before Dante. While Dante expressed the external, physical suffering of man, Naregatsi had emerged into the deeper surface, the inner suffering of man. With passionate and powerful flow of pictures he described the everlasting struggle and challenge that man faces every day of his life. Throughout the whole poem, the writer wavers from one extreme emotion to the other languishing in guilt and pessimism, then reveling in the ecstasy of hope and salvation. In all the contradictory feelings though, there is an unconditional faith in God that shines from one end of the poem to the other. And that is the triumph of Naregatsi's soul.

Text by Seta Melkonian

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