The 850th anniversary of the death of Nerses the Gracious (Nerses Shnorhali) and the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Armenian State Committee of Cinema have been included during the 41st General Conference of UNESCO in the organization’s 2022-2023 calendar commemorating anniversaries and honoring eminent personalities. The foreign ministry said that Armenia’s bid for the 850th anniversary of the death of Nerses the Gracious was supported by Cyprus, Italy, Greece, and Syria, and the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Armenian State Committee of Cinema was supported by Russia…
In the history of the Armenian churches, besides Gregory the Illuminator, Sahak the Parthian, Mesrop Mashtots, and Gregory of Narek, no one has ever been more loved and praised as much as Nerses the Gracious. People now and back then also praised him as a singer, the second Illuminator of Armenians, the light of the cosmos, three-dimensional master, the sacred blessing, and other titles.
And historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi wrote:
“This Nerses was wiser and greater than the masters of his era; and not only the Armenian masters but also the Greek and Assyrian masters. He was so wise that the fame of his wisdom was spread across all nations.”
Theologians and philosophers traveled thousands of miles to debate or study with him. Contemporaries called him Nerses of Kla because he lived in Hromkla but for generations, he remained under another name that is Nerses Shnorhali.
Poet, musician, and theologian, Catholicos of All Armenians Nerses Shnorhali (Nerses D. Klayetsi) is one of the prominent representatives of the Cilician cultural school of medieval Armenia.
If we were to describe the activity of Nerses Shnorhali in one word, we would say “The First”.
Shnorhali is the author of the first verse in Armenian lyric poetry history, historical-patriotic lament, cosmic poem, verse hymn, message, and wish. He is also our first children’s writer and the founder of pedagogical-educational poetry. He wrote two series of verse lessons, personifying the letters of the Armenian alphabet, as well as more than 300 verse riddles-fables, becoming the creator of the riddle as a separate literary genre in Armenian literature.
Irina Apoyan 