Nerses II, Astaraketzl. — Armenian Catholicos from 548 to 557. He convened the well-known Council of Duino (554–55), aimed at securing a dogmatic union against the sect of the Khoujik, introduced into Armenia by Persian merchants infected with Manichaeism and Nestorianism. Eighteen Armenian bishops and many princes took part in II. The Nestorians were expressly condemned. There was no opposition to the Council of Chalcedon.
Thirty-eight canons survive under the name of Nerses, of great interest for Armenian dogma and ecclesiastical discipline: Baptism, the Eucharist, the rights of the clergy and monks, etc.
BIBL.: A. Ciamician, Storia dell'Armenia (in Armenian), I, Venice 1781, pp. 237 ff.; E. Ter Minassianz, Die armenische Kirche in ihren Beziehungen zu den syrischen Kirchen bis zum Ende des 13. Jahrhunderts, Leipzig 1893; V. Hatzouni, Questioni importanti della storia armena, Venice 1927, pp. 369–78; id., Disciplina armena. Codificazione canonica orientale, Fonti, VII, Vatican City 1932; VIII, 1932, pp. 160 ff. Garabed Amaduni