DAVIDE

DAVIDE. — An Armenian katholikos of the 12th century, surnamed *Athamartzi*, i.e., of Athamar, because he was abbot-bishop of the Armenian monastery of that name on the south-eastern island of Lake Van. A member of the family of the prince of Sassoun, Tornik, of whom he was the nephew, he was also called D. Tornikian. Having failed to submit to the katholikos Gregory III Pahlavouni, canonically appointed in Cilicia because the latter was too young, he had himself proclaimed katholikos in a synod of five bishops of Eastern Armenia, convened at the monastery of Tzorovankh (1113). The schism gave rise to a series of Athamartzi katholikoi, practically accepted by the Armenians of Vaspourakan because of their dissenting tendency, and for a time caused hesitation among almost all the residential bishops of Greater Armenia when, between the 12th and 13th centuries, the choice of the katholikos was made.