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The Independent has published an article on the Armenian Island of San Lazarro.  

“In the year of the centenary of the mass killing of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, the tiny island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni assumes particular significance. Formerly a leper colony, it was the gift of Doge Alviso Mocenigo to Mekhitar, an Armenian monk fleeing persecution in Constantinople,” the article reads.

Even Napoleon, no friend to monasteries, was impressed by the island and saved it from the axe. Today, just 12 vardapets (learned monks) and five novices remain as custodians of 200,000 books, 4,500 rare manuscripts, and a disparate collection of esoteric treasures.

“The largest canvases are housed in the museum dedicated to Armenian treasures, which also has Bronze Age metalwork, gold coins from the first century BC, stamps from the short-lived First Republic of Armenia, and the sword, forged in 1366, of Leon VI of Lusignan, King of the Armenian House of Cilicia.”

According to the article, the soul of the monastery resides in its three libraries: from the magnificent Monumental Library, whose pear-wood bookcases contain rare European tomes spanning every subject, through Byron's Room, and on to the circular Manuscript Room, which houses one of the world's most important collections of Armenian manuscripts, including Gospels created in 862.

The library also holds early Armenian translations of ancient texts – such as works by Philo, Hesiod and St John Chrysostom – whose originals had been lost but were translated by the monks into Latin and thus revived.

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