### ARMENIAN ANTONIANS
An Armenian monastic institute, now extinct, which originated in the 18th century from the initiative of four brothers, M. Rudian, during the persecution by the Armenian patriarchs of Constantinople against those who supported the movement for union with Rome. Having withdrawn to Mount Lebanon, they received as a gift the locality of Creim, near Beirut, where the first monastery was built (1716), under the title of St. Saviour. Since the attempt to link this Lebanese foundation with that established by Abbot Mechitar in Venice failed, the A. of St. Saviour of Creim adopted (1752) the rule known as that of St. Anthony, already approved by Clement XII for the Maronites (1732), and in 1761 transferred the novitiate to Rome. An apostolate so well begun ended in the second half of the 19th century, when the controversy between the Hassunists and anti-Hassunists led the Armenian monks into schism. The surviving property and the rich library were incorporated into the Armenian institute of Bzommar (Lebanon).
Cf. M. Ormanian, Le Vatican et les Arméniens, Rome 1873; I. Srabian, La fondazione della Congregazione Antoniana, in the Armenian journal Handes Amsorya, Vienna 1902, pp. 287 ff.; and 1906, pp. 367 ff. Garabed Amaduni
### CHALDEAN ANTONIANS OF ST. ORMISDA
In Mesopotamia and Persia, monasticism, once very flourishing, had completely disappeared by the end of the 18th century. Gabriel Danbû (1784-1832), a native of Mardin, was engaged in commerce as a young man; after falling gravely ill, he vowed to become a religious if he recovered. In 1808, with two religious, he entered the monastery of Rabban Hormizd, near Alqôs, thus founding his Order. Bishop Henanîsô, of the Abûna family, which claimed the Nestorian patriarchal dignity, had granted this monastery to Fr. Danbû, but later regretted it, and the Abûnas began to persecute the monks so severely that the founder entered into negotiations with the Maronite patriarch to transfer them to Lebanon. However, the Order was so necessary for the Chaldean Catholics that, in its first 17 years, it provided them with five bishops. In 1830, the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda approved its constitutions, and in 1845 Gregory XVI, with the brief Monachorum instituta, approved them again. As the brief states, these were those of the Maronite A. of St. Isaiah, with a few modifications. According to the statistics published in 1932 by the Sacred Oriental Congress, in 1932 the monasteries numbered 3 and the monks 55.
Cf. P. Martin, La Chaldée, Rome 1867; Katsô, Hayât al-ab Danbû, extract from al-Nadîm, 1932; S. Bello, in Orientalia Christiana Analecta, 122 (1939), with extensive bibliography. Pietro Sfai