1000 Dram Mechitarists Congregation In Vienna

The Mekhitarist Congregation was founded in 1701 by Mekhitar of Sebaste, an Armenian Catholic monk who established his community first in Constantinople, then briefly in the Peloponnese, before settling on the island of San Lazzaro in the Venetian lagoon in 1717 — not Vienna. The Vienna congregation split from San Lazzaro in 1811 after internal disputes and eventually settled at the Mechitaristenkirche on Mechitaristengasse, where it remains active. The Vienna branch became particularly important as a center of Armenian printing, scholarship, and language preservation during the long period when no independent Armenian state existed.