The Acts of Thomas Rewritten: the Apostle Thomas in the Armenian Tradition

• Applicant: Dr. Mari Mamyan
• Subject Area: Roman Catholic Theology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 495679586

St. Thomas is one of those apostolic figures that had peculiar role in the formation and development of the Armenian Christian heritage. Yet, there has been no scholarly curiosity to recover the cult of St. Thomas in Armenia. Therefore, the goal of the current project is to fill this gap and reconstruct the portrayal of St. Thomas in medieval Armenian tradition. For this purpose, this project will assemble and for the first time make a comprehensive survey of all available data in Armenian related to St. Thomas. The centerpiece of this research will be the study of the Armenian Acts of Thomas (hereafter - AcTh) as a pivotal cornerstone for the portrayal of the Apostle Thomas. The examination of the Armenian AcTh, which will be based on ancient manuscripts and printed texts, is also going to be an important contribution to the study of the Armenian Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. Concurrently, this project will place the Armenian AcTh in a broader context by analyzing them within local Armenian traditions, such as historical writings, ecclesiastical and liturgical texts, literary compositions and some other written and material evidence related to the Apostle Thomas. The main objective of my research is to analyze how the Armenian versions of the AcTh interrelate with each other and with other Armenian Thomasine traditions and how these Acts were modified and adjusted to local purposes. Thus, the overall aim of the project is to study how the Armenian ‘frame’ contributes to a distinctly Armenian development of the figure of St. Thomas. To pursue this objective the study will focus on the numerous Armenian versions of the AcTh and correlate them with other literary but also archeological sources concerning the Apostle Thomas.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants