Hovhannes Causerne

The initial stage of life is little known. He was the rector of the Sevan monastery ^[4] and one of the most influential and famous Armenian church leaders, bore the title of “ wardap of the country of Armenia”. Matteos Urhaeci calls Cosern “the most educated person of his time ” ^[5] . It is known that in 1007, Causerne wrote a letter to the emperor of Byzantium Vasil II , where he defended the Armenian calculation of Easter , in 1022-1023, at the request of the Armenian princes, explained the earthquake that occurred in Armenia, in 1036-1037 issued a solar eclipse as a sign of the passage of a thousand years from the Crucifixion of Christ ^{[6] [7] [8] [5] [comm 1]} . In 1022, along with Catholicos Petros Getadar , he negotiated in Trapison with Basil II on behalf of the Armenian king Hovhannes-Smbat , which discussed the transfer of the Armenian lands of Byzantium after the death of Hovhannes-Smbat.

Tomb of Hovhannes Cosern in the Kond quarter of Yerevan, 1930s photo

He was the author of the theological and polemical works “Book of Faith” ( Armenian “Գիր հաւատոց” ) and “Christian Doctrine” ( Armenian “Քրիստոնեական վարդապետութիւն” ) ^[9] , the historical work “History of the Bagratids ” ( Armenian “ւթիւաՊ Բագրատունեաց ” , circa 1050 ^[10] , fragments are preserved ^{[Comm 2]} ), as well as several calendar works that have reached us, the most important of which is“ Comments on the calendar ”( Armenian “ Մեկնութիւն տոմարի ” ). In this work there is important information about the Armenian church calendar , in particular, the exact day of the beginning of the calculus is indicated ^[5] . He was also credited with the work "Vision", which, however, was written after the death of Cosern. Many Armenian historians of the High Middle Ages ^[10] transmit historical information about Kozern and his writings, in particular, Aristakes Lastivertsi ^[11] , Smbat Sparapet ^[8] , Hakob Sanahnetsi ^{[4] [12]} , Matteos Urkheetsi ^[5] , Mkhitar Ayrivanesi ^{[ 13] [comm 3]} , etc. He spent the last years of his life in Yerevan ^[8] , where he died. He was buried in the Kond area, in the cemetery , which was named after him. In 1632, Catholicos Movses III Tatevatsi was buried in the same cemetery, next to Hovhannes ^[14] . In Soviet times, the "Cosern cemetery" was partially built up, now in its place is the building of the National Assembly (1948) ^[2] .

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