Auswahl der wissenschaftlichen Literatur zum Thema „Armenian Catholic Archdiocese of Lvov“

Teaching the Armenian language at the University of Lwówin the years 1904-1939 The first attempts to introduce an Armenian language course at the Universityof Lwów were made at the beginning of the 20th century. The authorities ofthe Faculty of Philosophy obtained the consent of the Ministry of Religious Affairsand Education in Vienna to open a course of Old and New Armenian, which wasconducted in the years 1904-1933 by Rev. Bogdan Dawidowicz. The classes wereattended by seminarians of the Armenian-Catholic archdiocese, linguists, orientalistsand others interested in Armenian issues. Typically, two hours a week were allocatedto these classes. Students learned Armenian grammar and literature, including theworks of Movses Khorenatsi and Raffi (Hakob Melik Hakobian), as well as with thespecific conditions of the development of the Armenian language in Poland. Afterthe death of Rev. Dawidowicz, Garabed Keuprulian continued the course, focusingon West Armenian. In the interwar period, lectures on Armenian language and classicalliterature were conducted by professor Andrzej Gawroński from the Institute ofOriental Studies, while professor Jerzy Kuryłowicz taught Old Armenian from thehistorical and comparative perspective. During the discussed period, the universitycommunity in Lviv and the activists of the Archdiocese Union of Armenians werealso involved in publishing aimed at popularizing knowledge and broadening thestudies in the field of the Armenian language.

Sources for the History of the Armenian Catholic Church in Galicia in the Viennese Collections The article is a report from a query that took place in March 2019. The author discusses sources that relate to the history of the Armenian Catholic Church in Galicia (i.e. the Archdiocese of Lwów, Lemberg) found in the Austrian State Archives (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv) and in the Library of the Mechitharist Congregation (Bibliothek des Mechitharistenklosters) in Vienna. The collections contain a wealth of sources on the history of the Church and the Armenians living in Poland on the territories acquired in 1772 by the Austrian Empire, and until now only some of them have been used in the scientific literature. They present the relations of the central offices of the Habsburg monarchy with the Galician Armenians (who, in the overwhelming majority, were Catholics), and the role of this minority in the provincial administration. The sources also denote the importance of the religious congregation of Mechitarists in the life of the Armenian Catholic Archdiocese of Lwów. Many future priests learnt the Armenian language and Armenian liturgy at the Viennese religious secondary school (gymnasium) led by Mechitarists, and later a number of them joined the congregation. The book of religious professions, the letters and personal files, which mention a great number of Galician names, not only of Armenian descent (like archbishop Samuel Cyryl Stefanowicz or Rev. Dominik Barącz), but also of Polish origin serve as evidence of the aforementioned bond.

Behind the Scenes of the Appointment of the Successor of the Armenian Catholic Archbishop of Lwów, Józef TeodorowiczAlready in 1935 the archbishop of Armenian Catholics in Poland, Józef Teodorowicz, turned himself to the the C ongregation for the Oriental Churches to ask for appointing a coadjutor with the right of succession. He pointed to Rev. Andrzej Łukasiewicz from Czerniowce and Rev. Adam Bogdanowicz from Lwów as potential candidates for the post. Neither of them was eventually appointed, because the Holy See was considering closing the archdiocese and also questioned candidates’ qualifications. After the archbishop’s death (4 December 1938), the issue was re-raised, however, the candidates chosen by the archdiocese were rejected by the C ongregation for the Oriental Churches and Apostolic Nunciature in Warsaw. The rejected candidates were: Rev. Dionizy Kajetanowicz, Rev. Walerian Bąkowski, and Rev. Kajetan Amirowicz. Thus Łukasiewicz’s candidature was re-considered. The article presents opinions about Łukasiewicz and the situation of the Armenian Archdiocese in Lwów. Eventually, Łukasiewicz’s nomination turned out void both due to extended debates in Vatican dicasteries and the outbreak of World War II.

The article deals with the history of western missions to the Armenian archdiocese of Naxiǰewan in the first decades of the seventeenth century. In the 1610s-1630s, the archdiocese of Naxiǰewan was the destination of a series of Dominican missions. The article focuses on the relations between the missionaries and the local Armenian Catholic hierarchy and on how Propaganda Fide dealt with the contentious doctrinal and authority issues at stake.

Relying on heretofore untapped archival documentation stored in multiple archives, this chapter provides a “global micro-history” of a remarkably mobile Catholic Armenian alms collector named Father Andreas Ouzounean from Mount Lebanon to ask larger questions about the very nature of early modern mobility in general and about eighteenth-century religious fundraising networks in particular. The chapter follows Father Andreas’s fundraising voyages from Lebanon to Moscow, Lvov, Vienna, Trieste, Rome, Malta, Istanbul, Isfahan, Baghdad, Basra, and especially to Madras and Calcutta and argues that the mobility of such itinerant men and their success as alms collectors were very much predicated on early modern “infrastructural public works projects” and the effective use of special certificates and credit instruments such as bills of exchange and respondentia loans.