Saint Hakob of Akori Monastery (; pronounced ''Akori Surb Hakob Vank''; also sometimes referred to as Saint James), was an Armenian monastery located in the southeastern part of the historic region of Surmali (today the

Iğdır Province Iğdır Province (, , , ) is a Provinces of Turkey, province in eastern Turkey, located along the borders with Armenia, Azerbaijan (the area of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic), and Iran. Its adjacent provinces are Kars Province, Kars to the north ...

of modern

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

). The monastery was located 4.7 kilometers southwest of Akori, a village at the northeastern slope of

Mount Ararat Mount Ararat, also known as Masis or Mount Ağrı, is a snow-capped and dormant compound volcano in Eastern Turkey, easternmost Turkey. It consists of two major volcanic cones: Greater Ararat and Little Ararat. Greater Ararat is the highest p ...

. Destroyed by an earthquake and lahar in 1840, Akori was later rebuilt. It is known today as Yenidoğan and remains a small

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

village. In 1829,

Baltic German Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are Germans, ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), their resettlement in 1945 after the end ...

explorer

Friedrich Parrot Johann Jacob Friedrich Wilhelm Parrot (14 October 1791) was a Baltic German naturalist, explorer, and mountaineer, who lived and worked in Tartu, Estonia in what was then the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire. A pioneer of Russian ...

, Armenian writer

Khachatur Abovian Khachatur Abovian (; disappeared ) was an Armenian polymath, educator, scientist, philosopher, writer, poet and an advocate of modernization.Panossian, p. 143. He mysteriously vanished in 1848 and was eventually presumed dead. Reputed as the fat ...

, and four others reached the top of Mount Ararat in the first recorded ascent in history. They used St. Hakob as their base.

Architecture

The monastery of St. Hakob was a cruciform central-plan structure constructed of black stone with a central dome typical for Armenian churches of the time. The monastery had eucharistical inscriptions engraved upon the walls that dated from the 13th to 14th centuries.

History

The monastery was founded in 341 A.D. by

Jacob of Nisibis Saint Jacob of Nisibis (, '; Greek: Ἅγιος Ἰάκωβος Ἐπίσκοπος Μυγδονίας; Armenian: ), also known as Saint Jacob of Mygdonia, Saint Jacob the Great, and Saint James of Nisibis, was a hermit, a grazer and the Bishop ...

, the second

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

Nisibis Nusaybin () is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Mardin Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,079 km2, and its population is 115,586 (2022). The city is populated by Kurds of different tribal affiliation. Nusaybin is separated ...

who lived during the 3rd to 4th centuries A.D. It was built upon the northeastern slope of Mount Ararat (; the greater mountain is referred to as ''Masis'' in Armenian) in Masyatsotn canton of a larger province of

Ayrarat Ayrarat () was the central province of the ancient kingdom of Armenia, located in the plain of the upper Aras River. Most of the historical capitals of Armenia were located in this province, including Armavir, Yervandashat, Artashat, Vagharsha ...

Armenian kingdom The Kingdom of Greater Armenia or simply Greater Armenia or Armenia Major ( '; ), sometimes referred to as the Armenian Empire under Tigranes the Great, Tigranes II, was an Armenians, Armenian kingdom in the Ancient Near East which existed fro ...

. Some sources say that St. Hakob was the name of the monastery while there was a chapel of St. James nearby, while other sources refer to the two as the same site. The monastery is said to have contained relics of wood from the Biblical Ark of Noah. A strong earthquake, and a few hours later, a volcanic eruption occurred on Mount Ararat on July 2, 1840, triggering a

lahar A lahar (, from ) is a violent type of mudflow or debris flow composed of a slurry of Pyroclastic rock, pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water. The material flows down from a volcano, typically along a valley, river valley. Lahars are o ...

that destroyed the monastery of St. Hakob, Arakelots Vank in the neighboring village of Akori as well as the village itself.The "Christian Armenia" Encyclopaedia, Yerevan 2002, p. 31.

Folklore

According to legend, St. Jacob tried many times to climb Mount Ararat to find Noah's Ark which was buried under thick layers of ice at Parrot Glacier upon the top of the mountain. He would climb the mountain, fall asleep and wake up downhill from where he was. After repeated failed attempts, one day God said him in a dream "Do not try to find the Ark anymore. I will give you a piece of a wood of what the Ark was hewn". When he woke up, to his amazement he found the wood lying nearby. He decided to build the monastery at the location that he found the wood.

References

{{Armenian Churches 340s establishments Destroyed Armenian monasteries in Turkey Buildings and structures demolished in 1840 Christian monasteries established in the 4th century Christian monasteries disestablished in the 19th century Mount Ararat