Societies began extending charity to their most vulnerable members long ago. In the West, Christian churches naturally assumed this social function in order to reduce inequalities and preserve social peace. Armenia was no exception, as is attested by its canon and common law, which spelled out the obligations of the Armenian Church as early as the sixth or seventh century, when the Church was required to provide relief for the indigent and maintain almshouses for the old. Around the year 1000, the ruler of the Bagratid Kingdom of Ani, Ashod the Merciful, seemed to be the model of a king inspired by the Christian charity preached in the Gospels. In the nineteenth century, however, the Church related charity went beyond relief work; it expanded to the fields of health and education, particularly under the influence of American Protestant and, to a lesser extent, Catholic missionaries. The Christian message was associated, in this period, with the charity dispensed by the missionaries to meet community needs.
It was, however, only in the aftermath of the 1894-1896 Hamidian massacres that the devastated population of Ottoman Armenia, trapped in a desperate socio-economic situation, may be said to have begun to reap the benefits of charity in its modern form, philanthropy. For the impact that the massacres and related acts of violence had on public opinion in the West enabled the missionaries to raise funds substantial enough to open not only orphanages, but also first-rate hospitals and schools in Armenia. The fifty thousand orphans... Read all
AGBU Members of the Cesarea/ Kayseri Committee for Relief of the Indigent surrounded by their beneficiaries. Founded in 1886, this was one of the first lay charities active in an Armenian context. Photograph taken on 17 May 1899 (Coll. AGBU/Cairo)
Patriarch Maghakia Ormanian in 1896
(Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris)
Charity, Philanthropy, and Relief Work