Vardan Mamikonian

Vardan Mamikonian was the commander of the Armenian army in the fifth century. He was born in 387 and died in 451 at the battle of Avarayr.¹

The Mamikonian family was the most distinguished family in early Christian Armenia after the Arsacid kings. Its head held the hereditary office of sparapet, commander-in-chief of the Armenian army, and the office could not be taken from the family even when the holder was a child.² The family outlasted the fall of the Arsacid dynasty in 428.²

When the Persian king Yazdegerd II tried to impose Zoroastrianism on Armenia, Vardan led the revolt. He and most of the Armenian nobility fell at Battle of Avarayr in 451.²¹ The Persians then gave up the attempt to convert the Armenians by force, and the Armenians kept their Christian faith.¹ His nephew Vahan renewed the revolt in 481 and 482 and was in the end recognized as marzpan, the Persian-appointed governor of Armenia.²

The Armenian Church counts Vardan as a saint and martyr. His feast falls on the last Thursday before Lent.¹ The war is told by Yeghishe in the History of Vardan and the Armenian War and by Ghazar Parpetsi.