"Zakaria I zagetsi"

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Zakaria I Dzaghetsi () - Armenian church-state figure of the IX century, Catholicos of all Armenians in 854/55-876/77.

Life and activities
Born in the village of Dzag Kotayk region in the early IX century. Nothing is known about the early stage of life. In 854/55 he was ordained a deacon, a priest, a bishop, and became a Catholicos. He contributed to the restoration of Armenian statehood, played a significant role in strengthening the position of Ashot Bagratuni and improving relations between the Arab rulers of Armenia and the local nobility. Actively engaged in the restoration of ecclesiastical communion between Armenia and Byzantium, was in correspondence with Patriarch Photius of Constantinople (these letters have not survived to this day, but their content is partly known from the works of Armenian historians of the X-XIII centuries). In 862 he convened the Council of Shirakavan, at which Photius’ proposal to adopt the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon was categorically rejected. In 875 he convened another council, attended by both bishops and naharars. At this council, it was decided to declare the independence of Armenia, which caused another crisis in relations with the Arab Caliphate, but the attempts of Muslims to suppress the Armenian resistance ended in failure and soon (in 885) Ashot Bagratuni was recognized as the king of Armenia. He died in 876 or 877 in Dvina, where he was buried.

He wrote 25 homilies, most of which have not been published (only Encomius on the Resurrection of Christ has been fully published, as well as excerpts from the homilies Towards the Great Day of the Burial of the Lord Jesus Christ). They were mainly intended for reading during the holidays and were written in high style with the use of numerous rhetorical figures. These works, in addition to theological significance, are of interest for the study of the ancient Armenian language, due to the rich and peculiar lexicon of Zakaria. He used the works of Theophilus, Yegishe, Gregory the Theologian, Basil of Caesarea, Epiphany of Cyprus, as well as the Gospel of Nicodemus. He was one of the main editors of the church collection Tonapatchar.

Memory
The life and work of Zakaria formed the basis of the historical novel “Days of Zakaria Dzaghetsi” (1904) by the Armenian writer Khanzadeh.

Notes

Born in the ninth century
Those who died in the 870s
Church leaders of the ninth century