MOORAT-RAPHAEL, COLLEGE OF THE ARMENIANS. - It is the merger of two colleges founded at different times: the Moorat College was founded in Padua on 4 September 1834 with the bequests of the Armenian Samuel Moorat, and in 1846 it was transferred to Paris where it remained until the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
In Venice, the Raphael College was founded with the munificent support of the Armenian Edoardo Raphael on 11 September 1836. In 1870 the two colleges were united into one under the name College of the Armenians Moorat-Raphael, with its seat in Venice at the Palazzo Zenobio.
The purpose of the College is to provide for the education of Armenian youth in Armenian literature and the sciences. In its century-long history, the Moorat-Raphael College has been a centre of national and moral revival, and thousands of its pupils have held honourable positions in the governments of the Ottoman Empire, Iran, Egypt, and elsewhere. In 1897 it was granted parity of status by the State.