Mechitarists | Moda School

The Mıhitaryan Armenian Catholic School in Moda, Kadıköy (pre-world war I)

Mavi Boncuk | SOURCE

In the 19th century, the Mechitarists opened schools in several cities. In Istanbul, both the Venice and the Vienna branches of the order founded schools. The Venice branch-affiliated institutions provided elementary education, whereas the Vienna branch schools provided high-school level education.15

In the 19th century, the Surp Ğazar Armenian Catholic Mechitarist Priests Association, an affiliate of the Venice branch of the order, established three schools in Istanbul. The first one opened in Galata in 1803; yet it was not a full-fledged institution at the time. This school began offering regular classes at the building near the Galata Saint George Latin Church in 1808. The second one, the all-male Mechitarist [Mıhitaryan] Armenian Primary School, was opened at no. 30 Sakızağacı Avenue in Pera, in 1830. The last school opened in Moda, Kadıköy, in the late 1850s.

The Mıhitaryan School and its lands in Kadıköy in the insurance maps prepared by Charles Goad in the beginning of the 20th century (on the right, the school building which had burnt down in 1916 and sold by the foundation in 1958; on the left, the land with four wooden buildings, also sold in 1958)


The school in Sakızağacı was temporarily closed after it was burnt down in a fire in 1870. Meanwhile, its students continued attending classes at a different location, the Mechitarist Armenian School in Moda, Kadıköy.17 On July 12, 1888, Sultan Abdülhamid II issued a decree to rebuild the school at the same spot in Sakızağacı for the use of Catholic Armenian children.

During the First World War, the school in Moda, Kadıköy was allocated to the army; the Second Regiment of the 31st Battalion was based there. On January 21, 1915, blazes consumed the building due to the soldiers' "lighting a fire at the basement to do laundry." The school remained closed after the end of the war.

Affiliated with the Istanbul Catholic Bishops Council and administered by the Foundation of Surp Ğazar Armenian Catholic Mıhitaryan School and Monastery, the school in Sakızağacı moved to Bomonti, Şişli in 1958. With the proceeds from the sale of the plot of the burnt-down school in Moda, the building in Bomonti was bought from Emine Tevfika Ayaşlı for 710 thousand lira on June 4, 1958, and the property was registered at the land office on the same day the sale took place. Upon moving to the new building, the name of the school was changed to "Bomonti Private Armenian Catholic School."