"Let books be your dining table, / And you shall be full of delights. / Let them be your
mattress,/
And you shall sleep restful nights" (St. Ephraim the Syrian).


Friday, March 4, 2022

Armenian Spirituality

Readers of my two books in ecclesiology will be aware of my love for the Armenian tradition. So it is an especial delight for me to see that one of the important figures of that tradition has been steadily gaining attention in and translation for anglophone audiences. Just a few weeks ago we had a new publication, From the Depths of the Heart: Annotated Translation of the Prayers of St. Gregory of Narek, trans. Abraham Terian  (Liturgical Press, 2022), 568pp. 

About this book the publisher tells us this: 

St. Gregory of Narek (ca. 945–1003), Armenian mystic poet and theologian, was named Doctor of the Church by Pope Francis on April 12, 2015. Not so well known in the West, the saint holds a distinctive place in the Armenian Church by virtue of his prayer book and hymnic odes—among other works. His writings are equally prized as literary masterpieces, with the prayer book as the magnum opus.

With this meticulous translation of the prayers, St. Gregory of Narek enters another millennium of wonderment, now in a wider circle. The prayers resound from their author’s heart—albeit in a different language, rendered by a renowned translator of early Armenian texts and a theologian.

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