The Armenian Collection Tōnapatchaṛ

Abstract The Tōnapatchaṛ ( Տօնապատճառ , literally “the causes of feast days,” or “commentaries on feast days”) is a collection that has no equivalent in other ecclesiastical traditions. It survived in many copies that might be grouped into the Kamrjadzor and the Haghpat school recension branches. The Tōnapatchaṛ has long been considered a mere commentary on the Lectionary of the Armenian Church – an exegetical work for didactic purposes only. By indexing the historical development of these recensions and their enrichment between the seventh and fourteenth centuries, the present article argues that despite its exegetical character, the Tōnapatchaṛ served polemical purposes, focusing on the calendar differences between the non-Chalcedonian Armenian and Chalcedonian Byzantine Churches. The article further discusses the intensification of the polemical function of the Haghpat school recensions in the twelfth-thirteenth centuries due to the unity attempts between the Byzantine and Armenian Churches initiated by the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (1143–1180) and the Armenian Catholicos Nersēs Shnorhali (the Gracious, 1166–1173), which generated theological debates concerning the Dominical feasts and their exact days of celebration.