2i6 ANDREW J. SHIPMAN MEMORIAL 



compiler, St. Mesrob, who was surnamed Mashdotz. He ar- 

 ranged and compiled the five great liturgical books used in the 

 Armenian Church: (i) the Breviary (Zhamakirk) or Book 

 of Hours; (2) The Directory (Tzutzak) or Calendar, contain- 

 ing the fixed festivals of the year; (3) The Liturgy (Pataraga- 

 kirk) or Missal, arranged and enriched also by John Manta- 

 guni; (4) The Book of Hymns (Dagaran), arranged for the 

 principal great feasts of the year; (5) The Ritual or "Mash- 

 dotz," mentioned above. A peculiarity about the Armenian 

 Church is that the majority of great feasts falling upon week- 

 days are celebrated on the Sunday immediately following. The 

 great festivals of the Christian year are divided by the Arme- 

 nians into five classes: (i) Easter; (2) feasts which fall on 

 Sunday, such as Palm Sunday, Pentecost, etc.; (3) feasts 

 which are observed on the days on which they occur: the Na- 

 tivity, Epiphany, Circumcision, Presentation and Annuncia- 

 tion; (4) feasts which are transferred to the following Sun- 

 day: Transfiguration, Immaculate Conception, Nativity B. V. 

 M., Assumption, Holy Cross, feasts of the Apostles, etc.; (5) 

 other feasts, which are not observed at all unless they can be 

 transferred to Sunday. The Gregorian Armenians observe 

 the Nativity, Epiphany and Baptism of Our Lord on the same 

 day (January 6), but the Catholic Armenians observe Christ- 

 mas on December 25 and the Epiphany on January 6, and they 

 observe many of the other feasts of Our Lord on the days on 

 which they actually fall. The principal fasts are : ( i ) Lent ; 

 (2) the Fast of Nineveh for two weeks, one month before the 

 commencement of Lent — in reality a remnant of the ancient 

 Lenten fast, now commemorated only in name by our Sep- 

 tuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima Sundays; (3) the 

 week following Pentecost. The days of abstinence are the 

 Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year with certain ex- 

 ceptions (e. g., during the week after the Nativity, Easter and 

 the Assumption). In the Armenian Church Saturday is ob- 

 served as the Sabbath, commemorating the Old Law and the 

 creation of man, and Sunday as the Lord's Day of Resurrec- 

 tion and rejoicing, commemorating the New Law and the re- 

 demption of man. Most of the saints' days are dedicated to 

 Armenian saints not commemorated in other lands, but the 

 Armenian Catholics in Galicia and Transylvania use the Gre- 

 gorian (not the Julian) Calendar, and have many Roman 



