Mashdotz went to his spiritual father, Catholicos Sahag. They called a special council of priests to see what might be done to develop an alphabet for Armenia , since they would need to read and learn in their own tongue. Even Vramshabouh, the King of Armenia, was asked to help. A new set of letters had to be found.
With the blessings
of the King and Catholicos Sahag, Mashdotz
sent his pupils on a mission; some were to
learn Syriac in Edessan schools while others
were sent to Samosata to learn Greek. These
were the two languages in which Armenians of
the time learned about God. These were the
alphabets used in worship and in Bible
reading.
Mashdotz withdrew from the world and prayed day and night for help from God. It seemed an impossible task to devise an alphabet out of absolutely nothing, to create written letters for the beautiful sounds of his beloved tongue. Only God could create! Saint Mesrob, who had given his entire life to the service of his people and was praying now for God's help to make it just a little bit easier. They came to him in a vision. In it he saw a hand writing the letters on a rock.
Mashdotz found a Greek scribe, Roupanos, who was able to draw all the letters with the right curves and lines. He gathered his pupils together at once to translate the Holy Scriptures into the new written Armenian. They began with the proverbs of Solomon. Not surprisingly, the first words written in the brand new Armenian letters were, as tradition tells us, “that men may know wisdom and instruction, understand words of insight.'
The gospel was being read, written, taught in Armenian! Though the people of this land had been visited by the great Illuminator, Gregory, less than a hundred years before, they had not yet taken the faith into their hearts. And how could they have! How could they have made their own a faith that was articulated in the sounds and letters of other lands? Now they were beginning to worship, read Scripture, and learn all the profound concepts of their faith for the first time.
