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In the 34th issue for the year 1904 of the project “The Collection of Materials to Describe the Terrain and Tribes in the Caucasus,” the inspector of Hinzir two-year school, N. Shirakuni, published an essay, dedicated to Zangezur uyezd. It covers the time the author lived and includes a description of the nature in the uyezd, its agriculture, manners and life of the locals, education and the attitude towards education. The study also contains historical data and recounts the religious structures and ancient monuments there.
In the second part of the essay dedicated to the Zangezur uyezd N. Shirakuni writes about two Armenian monasteries, the legends about the ancient Tsitsernavank with Holy Agravakhach in its yard, and the inscriptions of Vorotna Vank Monastery.

“Of the ancient monasteries in the Zangezur uyezd, Tsitsernavank, the ‘monastery of the Little Finger,’ stands out most with its architecture, magnificence and antiquity. It is 20 versts to the north from Khindzirak, on the lower top of a hill called Gochas,” the author writes.

He recounts a legend about how Tsitsernavank was founded. In the ancient times, there lived in the village Gochas an Armenian melik, Tuman. His wickedness filled the villagers and clergy with hatred towards him. The burden of the sins behind Tuman turned back to him with loads of misfortunes. The Melik beseeched, “I lost my wife and children. I was deprived of my possessions. Now the hell is awaiting me. I am a sinner and lost forever. There is no salvation for me anymore!” He made up his mind to spend the rest of his life in St. Peter’s Monastery in Rome. A few years later, however, Jesus granted Melik with pardon and deliverance from sins in a dream. Some time later, St. Peter appeared to him and told him to take St. Peter’s right little finger, return to his homeland and erect a magnificent monastery on the flat top of the hill Gochas.

“Waking up in the morning, the melik, without saying a word, carefully went downstairs to the underground cave under the Monastey, where St. Peter’s relics rested. He saw the little finger on the tomb, and taking it, carefully rose back from the holy cave. At that very moment, all the icons of saints fell off the walls with a terrible crash. Shocked by the sudden sight, the monks noted the melik getting out of the cave with the Apostole’s little finger and rushed in him to take it away. But suddenly a mysterious voice spoke from the altar, ‘Do not touch the melik!’ Then the monks let him off, and he safely returned to his homeland with Peter the Apostle’s little finger. Here, he buried the little finger on the flat top of Gochas in a grand solemnity, accompanied by huge crowds of clergy and people,” as the legend has it.

Later, Tuman the Melik erected Tsitsernavank Monastery (“Tsitsernavank” meaning “Monastery of the Little Finger”) – preserved to this day – on that very hill at his own expenses.

The monastery has one more remarkable sight. It is a cross-like stone buried in the ground by the western wall of the monastery. Under this cross, the body of St. Raven the Redeemer is buried, hence the name Agravakhach meaning “raven’s cross.”

As the legend has it, when the monastery was under construction, Tuman the Melik gave all the masters and workers dinner twice a week. Once, the cook cut the meat into small pieces, put them into a copper cauldron and went to fetch water. While he was away, a viper crawled into the cauldron and hid itself curling up under the pieces of the raw meat. The cook came back and poured the water he brought into the cauldron without suspecting anything. Then he closed it with a stone slab and put it on a hearth made on an open space not far from the monastery. Suddenly, a raven flew up croaking and whistling shrilly from somewhere and started to fly around the cauldron. It sat on the stone slab, then again flew up, then was even about to throw itself into the fire. Noticing this, the workers tried to drive it away; still the stubborn bird did not fly away from the cauldron. When the cook at last took up the slab to see whether the food was ready, the raven that was making circles above the cauldron threw itself inside it and finally cooked itself. This extraordinary sight induced Tuman the Melik and the workers the thought that the food got desecrated and unclean, so they made an anonymous decision to throw it away.

“But how astonished were they to notice cooked pieces of the snake in the food they just threw away! Only then did they understand why the raven was so insistently twirling and croaking, sacrificing itself to save more than 200 people from death,” the legend says.

The news about the miraculous incident quickly spread all over the surroundings, and people from all the places gathered there to see the body of the raven God sent to rescue over 200 people from real death. Upon the decision of the gathered people and clergy, the raven’s body was buried with Christian rites by the western wall of the monastery, the place the cross-like stone is erected, whence it got its name Agravakhach. Every year, on the holidays of the Ascension and Transfiguration of Christ, the people from all parts of Zangezur uyezd gathered in Tsitsernakakhach to worship St. Peter the Apostle’s little finger. Women bathed their children, who did not start walking soon, on Agravakhach and left there a couple of wax candles, two eggs and a horseshoe with two nails.

Stepanos Orbelian, a 13th century Armenian historian, supposes Tsitsernavank was founded in the second half of the 9th century (884), along with Tatev and Vorotna monasteries.

“The Collection of Materials to Describe the Terrain and Tribes in the Caucasus” is a large-scale publication of narrative sources carried out by the management of the Caucasus Educational Okrug in 1881-1908. It includes researches and description of the history, life, and ethnographic characteristics of the peoples inhabiting the Caucasus region of the Russian Empire.

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