Sahakdukht


Sahakdukht was an Armenian composer of religious hymns, poet, and pedagogue..
Few is known about her life. Her brother was the music theorist and Greek translator Stepanos Syunetsi. After his murder, she felt into a deep grief and decided to live an ascetic live to in a cave, in the Garni Gorge, near present-day Yerevan; there she produced ecclesiastical poems as well as liturgical chants. People would suffered from nervous disturbs searched her and, it is said that she played her lyre, hidden from sight behind a curtain, to help heal people from their problems. It is believed that she was the first to use some kind of music therapy for healing.
She wrote many Christian religious compositions, the only one to survive is Srbuhi Mariam, a nine-stanza acrostic verse. The song was discovered and published by Armenian musicologist Norayr Pogharian in the Hask magazine, in 1951. It is believed that many of her hymns were dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Some are supposed to have helped to further shape the genre in subsequent centuries. Sahakduxt is also known to have taught lay music lovers and clerical students a number of sacred melodies. In addition to composing spiritual songs, she practiced pedagogy.
After her death, her tomb became a site for pilgrimage.