AGENCY FOR CONSERVATION
OF HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL MONUMENTS
CHURCH OF ST. KAYANE
(630-641 A.D.)
THIS CHURCH IS DEDICATED TO THE ABBESS KAYANÉ, WHO, IN THE THIRD–CENTURY, LED HRIPSIMÉ FROM ROME TO ARMENIA TO ESCAPE A FORCED MARRIAGE TO THE ROMAN EMPEROR DIOCLETIAN. DESPITE TORTURES INFLICTED ON HER AT THE ORDERS OF THE KING TRDAT OF ARMENIA WHOSE ADVANCES SHE ALSO REJECTED, KAYANÉ ENCOURAGED HRIPSIMÉ TO “BE OF GOOD CHEER, AND TO STAND FIRM” IN HER FAITH. THIS CHURCH WAS BUILT AT THE SITE WHERE ST. KAYANÉ WAS MARTYRED. THE ORIGINAL FOURTH–CENTURY MAUSOLEUM WAS CONSTRUCTED FOR ST. KAYANÉ AT THE SITE WHERE ST. KAYANÉ WAS MARTYRED, ACCORDING TO THE VISION OF ST. GREGORY THE ILLUMINATOR. IN THAT VISION, CHRIST DESCENDED TO THE EARTH BESIDE HIM. ST. GREGORY SAW WHERE KAYANÉ WAS MARTYRED, MARKED BY A BASE OF RED, THE COLOR OF BLOOD, BELOW COLUMNS OF CLOUDS AND A CROSS OF LIGHT. THE CATHOLICOS SAHAK REPAIRED THE MAUSOLEUM AND HE LATER BUILT ANOTHER “IN STONE” IN THE LATE FOURTH–CENTURY. THE CATHOLICOS EZR REPLACED THAT ONE BETWEEN 630 AND 641 A.D. WITH A “LARGE, BRIGHTLY-LIT STRUCTURE OF STONE” WHICH IS THE PRESENT CHURCH.
ST. KAYANÉ’S CHURCH BELONGS TO ANOTHER BRILLIANT VARIETY OF ARMENIAN CHURCH–TYPES OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY. IT IS A BASILICA-TYPE CHURCH WITH A CENTRAL NAVE AND TWO AISLES, AND CROWNED AT THE CENTER WITH A DOME. ST. KAYANÉ IS ONE OF THE EARLIEST EXAMPLES OF THIS SYNTHESIS BY ARMENIAN ARCHITECTS OF THE THREE-AISLE BASILICA-TYPE CHURCH BUILT IN ARMENIA IN EARLIER CENTURIES AND THE CENTRAL-PLAN CHURCH WHICH LATER BECAME WIDESPREAD THERE. THE INTERIOR HAS FOUR TALL PILLARS WHICH SUPPORT THE CENTRAL DOME AND CREATE THE SHAPE OF A CROSS. ST. KAYANÉ BOTH ECHOES ARMENIA’S ARCHITECTURAL PAST SINCE IT RESEMBLES THE IMPORTANT FIFTH CENTURY ARMENIAN CHURCH AT TEKOR, AND FORETELLS ITS FUTURE SINCE IT IS THE FORERUNNER OF THE MAGNIFICENT CATHEDRAL AT ANI CONSTRUCTED BY THE ARCHITECT TRDAT IN 989-1010.
(WITH THE GENEROSITY AND ASSISTANCE OF THE ARMENIAN LIBRARY AND MUSEUM OF AMERICA, IN WATERTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS.)
