Mechitar, having exhausted the learning at his command in the institutions to which he could obtain admittance, and having learned from missionaries whom he met of the far greater advantages in Europe, conceived the idea of establishing a literary institution for the Armenian nation, and after many struggles founded a Mechitaristican Society at Constantinople in 1700. Here he began to print books in the Armenian language, and sent out some preachers to various cities of Armenia; but soon he became the object of such persecution that he barely escaped the galleys by putting himself under the protection of the French ambassador. Again, in spite of immense hindrances, he gathered his disciples at Modon, in the Morea, and anew began the erection of a convent and church. For twelve years he labored, when war broke out between the Turks and the Venetians, and his property fell into the hands of the former. Meantime Mechitar had commended himself greatly to the Governor Emo, and to the General of the Marine, Sebastiano Mocenigo, both of whom had given him money for his building, and the aid of their friendship; and now he naturally turned to Venice, where he landed in 1715. After much consultation and at the recommendation of Emo and Mocenigo, in 1717 the Senate decreed to him the island of San Lazzaro, which had been used as a hospital for lepers until it was no longer needed. Mechitar found little to help him in the old church, deserted dormitory, two wells, and a garden, which were the only remnants of the former buildings which existed. {314} He obtained from Rome, where he presented his cause in person, permission to send missionaries to the East. Rich Armenians, of whom there are many, came to his aid; and in the remaining thirty-two years of his life he established his convent on such a basis, and made it of such manifest benefit to the world, that in 1810, when the monasteries of Venice were suppressed, the Mechitaristican Society was granted its independence.