History of Armenia, by Father Michael Chamich; from B. C. 2247 to ...

HISTORY OF ARMENIA. 413
solating his country. He incessantly prayed
to God for pardon for this one black act in
his life, and during one of his earnest supplications
to the Almighty oa this subject, his
soul was released from his body. This event
occurred A. D. 856, H. E. 305. He was
subsequently surnamed the Confessor.
During the time
Armenia, Johannes the pontiff,
in
that Bulah was devastating
afraid to remain
Duin, wandered about various parts of the
country avoiding the sword of the Saracens.
He at length found a safe asylum in the convent
of Makenoses in the province of Gelarcunies,
where he died of a broken heart, A. D. 854,
H. E. 303. He possessed the pontificate twentytwo
years. His successor was Zechariah, Haican
from the village of Zag in the province of ^'^^
Cotais, and as a mark of the turbulence and
calamity of the times in which he lived, it is
sufficient to mention that in one day he was
ordained deacon and priest, and consecrated
bishop and pontiff. He presided over the
church twenty-one years,
and made many improvements
in the spiritual condition of the
Armenians during the days of Ashot, with
whom commenced the power of the Bagratian
potentates.
Shekhey the Persian, whom Bulah had left
HaSar^'
in Armenia as officiating governor, enjoyed era304.