Lidov, Aleksej M.: The mural paintings of Akhtala (Moscow, 1991)

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group which found itseif caught between the Georgian and the Armenian-
Monophysite environments. Only the union of the Christian churches could alter this
situation, otherwise fraught with conflicts and crises, in favour of the Armenian-
Chalcedonians. They would then be transformed from despised heretics and suspect
foreigners into essential intermediaries who could ensure that the various confessions
would reach understanding and agreement.
For the Armenian-Chalcedonians their striving towards union did not signify a
rejection of the basic beliefs and practices of Byzantine Orthodoxy. They continued to
dispute certain issues of dogma and ritual with the Catholic church. A unique feature
of the iconographic programme of Akhtala confirms this and indubitably represents a
specific initiative taken by those who devised the iconographic programme.
A long inscription running above the "Communion of the Apostles" quotes Christ's
words at the Last Supper (Matt 26:26-9). This is quite canonical. It reproduced the
words that disclosed the meaning of the eucharistic mystery and were daily repeated
during the liturgy^; they were to be found in many Byzantine iconographic
programmes'^. Conventionally the words "Take eat, this is my body," and "Drink ye
all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament", are located over the two groups of
apostles depicted receiving the consecrated bread and wine, respectively. In the
Akhtala muials, however, the inscription has been significantly altered, the second
phrase being repeated over the first scene as well. Evidently the person who painted
the handsome letters in mediaeval Greek used the language as his native tongue^.
And considering how important and well-known a quotation this was, the probability
of a simple error is excluded. The only reasonable explanation must be that the deviser
of the iconographic programme wished, tactfully and without disrupting the traditional
iconography, to emphasize the especial significance of the wine in the Eucharist. Since
this was a Chalcedonian church where the congregation, from the earliest times, had
taken communion "in both kinds", we must ask why such insistence was necessary.
It is only by examining the relations between the different Christian confessions at
the turn of the 13th century, in our view, that we can understand this unusual
emphasis. Shortly before the union of 1199 an envoy came to Cilician Armenia from
the Pope, with uncompromsing demands that the Armenian church adopt Catholic
rites. Some were indeed adopted, and there are direct indications of this in the works
of Nerses of Lambron^. Among the rituals discussed or even perhaps adopted was
communion "sub una specia", i.e. the taking only of consecrated bread without wine by

^0 Characteristically, the quotation is given in the iiturgica! redaction. Instead of the Gospei "for
many", a [iturgicai form, "for you and for many" in used.
6t One of the most famous examples is provided by the mosaics of the Hagia Sophia of Kiev. See
V-N. Lazarev, Afoza/Af 5q/a ArevyAoi (The Mosaics of St Sophia of Kiev), Moscow, 1960, pp. 105-106.
62 For a detailed linguistic analysis of the inscription, see Kaukhchishvili, "Grecheskie nadpisi", pp.
142-3.
62 A'nodal'noe yfovo Merrara Lam6roarAogo, arA/a'cpAfcqpa (The Synodal Sermon of
Nerses of Lambron, Archbishop of Tarsus), Translation and preface by N. Emin, Moscow, 1865, pp. 14-
15.