Spiritual Mourning with Tears in Armenian Christianity from the Fifth to the Tenth Century Jesse Siragan Arlen (bio) In recent years, increasing scholarly attention has been paid to the study of the emotions across different historical periods.1 Inspired in part by the number of fruitful studies produced by scholars working in the adjacent field of Classics,2 Patristics scholars have also turned their attention to the study of the emotions.3 One of the most investigated areas has been the emotional cluster of grief, mourning, and tears.4 The same level of attention to the historical study of the emotions [End Page 109] in the late antique or medieval period has not yet spread to Armenian studies. This paper aims to contribute toward that end by extending the scholarly discussion of the emotional constellation of mourning, compunction, and tears into the Armenian milieu, looking in particular at a treatise on the subject by Anania of Narek (ca. 910– 990), first abbot and co-founder of the monastery of Narek. This article proceeds by first summarizing some of the results of Patristics scholarship on this topic, providing an explanation of the practice of spiritual mourning with tears with reference to representative Greek and Syriac figures. Following this is a representative survey of spiritual mourning with tears in early Armenian texts and a more detailed examination of this practice as it figures in Narek monastery’s ascetic-mystical program, initiated by its first abbot Anania. Finally, I will mention one of the ways in which Anania’s teaching on this practice impacted his relative and most gifted disciple, Grigor (ca. 945–1003), [End Page 110] whose book of prayers, known as the Book of Lamentation (Մատեան ողբերգութեան) was composed, among other reasons, to be used to help people shed tears in prayer with God. Spiritual Mourning with Tears: A Concise Explanation Spiritual mourning with tears finds its meaning in the context of the cosmic drama of exile and separation from God that is a consequence of existence in a fallen world, and the process of restoration and salvation that God effected through the Incarnation. In a certain sense, it is derivative of the sacrament of baptism, which, in the Christian understanding, is the foundational means of restoring the separated individual to God. Baptism, however, may only be performed once. In the early Church, before the baptism of infants became normal practice, some decided to put off being baptized until late in life, so as to make sure that all of their sins would be eradicated in the once-for-all ceremony of baptism. The most famous such case is that of the emperor Constantine, who, we hear, waited until his deathbed to be baptized, so that all his bloody deeds of war and shady political maneuverings would be fully washed away before death.5 But when the baptism of young children became normal practice, a problem naturally arose. What about sins committed after baptism? How to purify oneself of those? It is here that spiritual mourning with tears finds its first importance. The nexus of sin, water, and purification led to confessional mourning with tears being understood as a second baptism.6 Mourning with tears over one’s sins is first and foremost a way of purification from sin, an affective physical response to separation from God and an expression of the genuineness of the repentance, or change of heart, that brings about restoration. The external, physical, and visible nature of tears was understood to render manifest the internal, spiritual, and unseen condition of the repentant heart. In later centuries, the prevailing emphasis on the emotion of fear (of judgement) in connection [End Page 111] with tears of repentance, gave way to a new emphasis on the emotion of love (for God) in connection with a higher order of tears, those that are shed during a later stage of the ascetic-mystic’s journey towards union with the divine. Spiritual Mourning with Tears in the Bible Before looking at some of the early Christian proponents of this practice, it is helpful to consider the biblical background that the church fathers drew from. The practice is informed first of all by the Hebrew Bible...
Read full abstract