We took a water taxi to Saint Lazarus Island. It's in the Venetian Lagoon, about 1.2 miles southeast of Venice proper. It has been the home of the Benedictine Congregation of the Mechitarists since 1717. They are an Armenian Catholic congregation. Saint Lazarus Island is one of their main centers along with one in Vienna.

The island has an interesting history. It was originally a leper colony as Saint Lazarus is the patron saint of lepers. Eventually the island was abandoned but then given to the Armenian monks. They have now lived here for more than 300 years.

Napolean recognized it as an academy in 1810 when nearly all Venetian monasteries were abolished. Lord Byron visited here for two years, 1816-1817. According to our private island tour guide, Lord Byron worked here for two years while pursuing an Armenian woman. The island is now mostly a tourist destination. Below is a photo of a photo of the entire island.

Most of our time on the island was spent in the area and buildings around the interior courtyard. It was a very pleasant place to visit.

The nearest walls of the courtyard buildings had some large print photos of Armenian sites. Vicky and I were thrilled to see places that we had just visited this year, in May. Below, Vicky stands next to a photo of the Khor Virap Monastery with Mount Ararat in the background. She showed our tour guide some photos of us right there in May that were on her phone. Our guide was quite impressed.

The church was originally built in the 14th century if I understood it correctly but was extensively updated, restored, and improved by the Armenian monks in 1722. It has had other additions since that time. The church was quite large and much more decorative than I expected. I was especially surprised by the size considering how few monks have generally resided here over the years. The most interesting point for me was low windows off on the sides. Our guide said that the lepers were not allowed inside the church but looked through these windows during the services. You can't see the low windows in the photo below.

The library was a highlight of our tour. Our guide said the library was built before 1714 and that it houses 180,000 valuable manuscripts. She said that it's an important repository of Armenian history and culture. Monks, scholars, and historians do research here. The photo below is just one tiny portion of the library.

The monastery also has, as part of the library area, a large collection of journals, artifacts, paintings, Armenian ceramics, swords, tapestries, chalices, ivory staffs, crosses, various metal works, Egyptian mummies, statues, papyrus, Indian ivory, thrones, and even a painting of Niagara Falls. Most items were donated by Armenians living abroad in Egypt, China, India, the United States, and many other places. No photos were allowed in this area.

After our tour, we had free time to spend in the gift shop. But we went outside and enjoyed a particularly nice day, viewing Venice across the lagoon.