Mamikonian

MAMIKONIAN. - An illustrious family of Armenian princes, to whom the protection of the crown was entrusted.

It gave not only heroes to the homeland but also great saints. Among the most illustrious: VACE; MUSCEL; MANUEL the regent; VARDAN, who is celebrated as a defender of the Armenian Church against Persian paganism (451); VAHAN, who continued the work of the former and who, through tactics and fortitude, succeeded in obtaining from the Persians freedom of worship; the princess HAMASABUHI, martyred for the faith.

The Arabs (642), invading Armenia, aimed to destroy the magnates they suspected, among whom the M. were in the front rank. Many of the dispersed passed into Greek territory, where a branch of the M. family had existed since as early as 380. Subsequently the M. are encountered in high offices of the Byzantine Empire: among these the empress THEODORA, her brother VART (Bardas) and their ancestor MANUEL, general of the armies of the East.

BIVL.: M. Ciamcian, Storia (in Armenian), Venice 1784, passim; N. Andrikian, I M. di F. Byzant. (in Armenian), Venice 1904; Kervork Aslan, Etudes historiques sur le peuple arménien, Paris 1928, passim; Pasdermadjian, Histoire de l'Arménie, ibid. 1949, passim.