Page:The History of Armenia - Avdall - Volume 1.djvu/458

Rh solating his country. He incessantly prayed to God for pardon for this one black act in his life, and during one of his earnest suppli- cations to the Almighty on this subject, his soul was released from his body. This event occurred A. D. 856, H. E. 305. He was subsequently surnamed the Confessor.

During the time that Bulah was devastating Armenia, Johannes the pontiiil afraid to remain in Duin, wandered about various parts of the country avoiding the sword of the Saracens. He at length found a safe asylum in the convent of Makenoses in the province of Gelarcunies, where he died of a broken heart, A. D. 854, H. E. 303. He possessed the pontificate twenty- two years. His successor was Zechariah, from the village of Zag in the province of Cotais, and as a mark of the turbulence and calamity of the times in which he lived, it is suiiicient to mention that in one day he was ordained deacon and priest, and consecrated bishop and pontiiii He presided over the church twenty-one years, and made many im- provements in the spiritual condition of the Armenians during the days of Ashot, with whom commenced the power of the Bagratian potenmtes.

Shekhey the Persian, whom Bulah had leil: in Armenia as ohiciating governor, enjoyed