Death of Catholicos Abraham III (April 18, 1734)

Abraham of Crete was born in Heraklion, Crete, in the seventeenth century and was Armenian Prelate of Thrace in 1708-1734. There is no information about his education and upbringing, except for the fact that he knew Armenian and Turkish and was probably conversant in Greek.

In April 1734, he went on a pilgrimage to Eastern Armenia, at that time under a short-lived Ottoman rule. He arrived in August and his religious devotion gained him the sympathy of Catholicos of All Armenians Abraham II (1730-1734). An epidemic took the life of the Catholicos on November 11. Despite Abraham of Crete’s protests about being old and ill, he was elected Catholicos on November 14, yielding to the pressure of the Ottoman governor of Yerevan.

Abraham III came to the throne at a volatile time in the region. He wrote a chronicle of the campaign of Nader Shah of Persia (1736-1747) to reconquer territories that his predecessors had lost to the Ottomans, including Armenia. It is one of the few non-Persian sources about this period. The Catholicos wrote that many villages had been ruined by the Ottoman invasion and that the area was suffering greatly. He was invited as a guest of honor at Nader’s coronation. He recorded detailed conversations he had with the Shah, who visited the Armenian cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin and reconfirmed its tax-exempt status. He also saved many Armenians from exile, obtaining their return.

Abraham III died on April 18, 1737, at Etchmiadzin and was buried there after his short but successful reign. His chronicle was published in 1796 and 1870 and translated into French (Marie-Felicité Brosset) and English (George Bournoutian).