The Legend of Nor Getik

While lawlessness ran rampant across the land, the vardapet (priest) Mkhitar the Beardless was the prime example of moral purity and perseverance for all Armenians. Mkhitar was an honest, straight talking and well educated man. He was often invited for a visit by Armenian princes and average people respected him greatly. But the Catholicos of Caucasian Albania disliked the vardapet and so Mkhitar moved to the ancient monastery of Getik. Science and crafts flourished at the monastery and it became a tremendous spiritual centre, all thanks to Mkhitar.

News of Mkhitar reached foreign lands and soon theologians and philosophers from other lands visited him, despite on-going wars. There was never a dull day for him.

One day Mkhitar thought his time had come to meet the God, but on that night an angel came to him in a dream and said “Listen carefully Mkhitar, you will have a good harvest seven years in a row. You must fill your stocks with grain, because after that you will have seven years of drought.”

“It’s true what they say,” Mkhitar thought, “You can’t go before your time.”

So, for seven years the monastery stocked the grain, and then the rains stopped and plants died. Mkhitar crafted a round bowl called ‘goosh’ and began to ration the grain out to the residents, equally and fairly. The grain lasted seven years.

It was due to the round bowl that he used, that they nicknamed him Goosh (Gosh). The monastery Nor-Getik was called Goshavank after him.