Mesrop Mashtots was an Armenian linguist, composer, theologian, statesman, and hymnologist in the Sasanian Empire. He is venerated as a saint in the Armenian Apostolic, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Churches.
Portrait of Mashtots by Stepanos Nersissian (1882)
Fresco of Mesrop by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770)
Mesrop in a 1776 Armenian manuscript
The Amaras Monastery in Artsakh, where Mesrop set up the first school that used his script.
Armenian is an Indo-European language and the sole member of an independent branch of that language family. It is the native language of the Armenian people and the official language of Armenia. Historically spoken in the Armenian highlands, today Armenian is widely spoken throughout the Armenian diaspora. Armenian is written in its own writing system, the Armenian alphabet, introduced in 405 AD by the canonized saint Mesrop Mashtots. The estimated number of Armenian speakers worldwide is between five and seven million.
Armenian manuscript, 5th–6th centuries.
The Four Gospels, 1495, Portrait of St Mark Wellcome with Armenian inscriptions
First printed Armenian language Bible, 1666
Armenian language road sign.