The Mechitarists, officially the Benedictine Congregation of the Mechitarists (), is an Armenian Catholic monastic order founded in 1701 by Mekhitar of Sebaste. Members use the postnominal abbreviation CAM.
The order is best known for their series of scholarly publications of ancient Armenian versions of otherwise lost ancient Greek texts and their research on classical and modern Armenian language. They follow the Rule of Saint Benedict.
The congregation was long divided into two branches, with the respective motherhouses being in Venice and Vienna. In July 2000 they united to form one institute.
History
thumb|250px|The island of San Lazzaro, with the monastery and the church of Mekhitarists.
thumb|A map of Mekhitarist activity
Their eponymous founder, Mekhitar of Sebaste, was born in Sebastia in Armenia, then part of the Ottoman Empire, in 1676. He entered a monastery, but was concerned about the level of culture and education in Armenia under Turkish rule at that period, and sought to do something about it. Contacts with Western missionaries led him to become interested in translating material from the West into Armenian and setting up a religious order to facilitate education.
Mekhitar set out for Rome in 1695 to make his ecclesiastical studies there, but he was compelled by illness to abandon the journey and return to Armenia. In 1696 he was ordained a priest and for four years worked among his people.
On the outbreak of hostilities between the Turks and Venetians they migrated to Venice, and the island of San Lazzaro was given to them in 1717. This has remained the headquarters of the congregation to this date; Mekhitar died there in 1749, leaving his order firmly established.
In 1810 all the other monastic institutions in Venice were abolished by Napoleon, but the Mekhitarists were specifically exempted from the decree.
thumb|250px|Byron's visit to San Lazzaro in 1816
Lord Byron visited the monastery on 13 November 1816, a Wednesday. His companion John Cam Hobhouse left this account of the visit:
<blockquote>
Byron and I then went in [a] gondola to [the] establishment of St Lazare. It was some time before we were let in – the brothers were at prayer, but when we walked into their church one of them bowed out and most courteously showed us about. Unfortunately the key to the library was not to be found – the keeper of it was out. We saw the neat galleries and little chambers of the fathers, with Armenian letters over them. Our conductor showed us a man’s dictionary of Armenian and Latin – told us there were about forty frati and eighteen pupils, some few from Armenia, but mostly Constantinople. One has been in London and talks English. The youths learn Latin, all of them, and some Greek – also German and French some – and all Italian – English will now be taught.
Those who please of the pupils enter the order (they have revenues on the mainland). Zanetto said Napoleon despoiled them, but our conductor contradicted this, and said that he gave a decree from Paris saving this brotherhood from the fate of the other monasteries on account of their patriotic labours for their countrymen. We saw their press, where eight men are employed, when we saw them on an Armenian Testament. They are now on a translation of Rollin. Their average is four books a year. They are all for the use of the Armenian nation, and all printed, as our guide said, in the literal (literary/classical) Armenian. They are shipped for Constantinople, and there sold.
The dining-hall set out there looked like a Cambridge dining-hall – and the establishment is about 100 years old founded by one [Mekhitar], whose picture is in the refectory. It did our hearts good to see the place. We are to return and see the library. They are all Catholics.
</blockquote>
The Schism of 1773
One of the most significant moments in the history of the Mekhitarist order was the schism of 1773, which not only had an impact on the structure and the future of the order but also on the Armenian church itself. The formation of the Armenian Catholic group could be seen as the product of the division inside this ethnic community.
The schism reached a breaking point in 1773 when a group of Armenian monks under the direction of Ghevont Alishan, a follower of Mechitar, publicly seceded from the Armenian Apostolic Church and founded the Armenian Catholic Church. As a result of the schism, the Armenian community was severely divided; many Armenians chose to stick behind the Armenian Apostolic Church.
After the division, a new branch of the Mekhitarist order was formed in Trieste which then belonged to the Habsburgs. When in 1805 Trieste was occupied by the French, the Triestine Mekhitarists lost all their property because they were seen as Habsburg subjects. In 1837 the new branch of the order moved to Vienna where it remains today. The Venice branch remained focused on the preservation of the Armenian language and the translation of old Armenian books and manuscripts. It started translating the books and the manuscripts into different languages which helped in the popularization of Armenian culture. They also started educational systems where the monks of the order would teach the Armenian heritage.
Organization
thumb|The [[Mekhitarist Monastery, Vienna|Mekhitarist Monastery in Vienna, Austria.]]
While the Mekhitarists live under the Rule of Saint Benedict, they are considered their own religious order separate from the Benedictines, similar to the Cistercians, hence they are not considered a congregation within the Order of Saint Benedict.