Elucidating the educational activities of the Mekhitarists we have the in­tention to reveal some details which were characteristic for all the fathers of the Congregation. The holy mission of the Congregation fathers, alongside with their doc­trine, was to spread light, hope and science among Armenians, and that was their credo and the main direction of their activities. As faithful devotes of their duty, they had to forget their person, to risk their life, constantly undergo perse­cutions, betrayals, calumnies, they were accused and doubted, they had to face vengeance, malice and hatred, but nevertheless, they always tried to remain faith­­ful to their ideas of enlightenment and never did they betray the orders of Me­khitar Sebastatsi.
One mustn’t forget that the main goal of the Mekhitarists’ enlightening activities was first of all the paramount idea of educating in schools Armenians having lost their sovereignty and their national independence, living under the yoke of a stranger imperialistic state, or dispersed all over the world, and thus lead them to preserve their national dignity and identity. To realize this idea they used all their either material, physical, moral and religious possibilities or avai­­lable potential and advantages.
The Soviet Armenian historiography and pedagogy, getting round a series of important circumstances, considered their enormous, rich and substantial activities exclusively from the confessional viewpoint, pointing out only their being of service to the Vatican, the citadel of Catholicism. Meanwhile their fruitful enlightening activities of three hundred years, the schools they founded and their outstanding feats in the sphere of education need supplementary stud­ies, new interpretations, new appreciation and estimation.
First of all they played the role of a huge bridge for dialogue and influ­ences between Armenian and European culture. Mekhitarists’ strong connec­tions and affinities with European milieu and culture helped to transfer to them such well organized and methodical ways of activity, thanks to which they cre­ated their works in historiography and Armenian studies, their encyclopedias, their des­crip­tions of Armenian antiquities and geography, beautiful printings and ma­ny other works. Not only they get acquainted the European civilization with the Ar­­me­nian nation, but spread the Armenian centuries-old culture with all its splen­dor and originality in the entire Occident.

Being directly and immediately influenced by the entire human civiliza­tion, the Mekhitarists coordinated all the branches of national science and estab­lished order within the borders of their studies. Sebastatsi, Alishan, Chamchian, Bagratuni and other great figures in the sphere of Armenian studies and historio­graphy were the authors of first systematic books of grammar, history, geogra­phy, bibliography and other sciences; they founded the best schools and printing houses of European type.

Their activities of three centuries were carried out in two main directions: to rediscover and remind the historical values of Armenian people’s spirit and thought; and to constantly get connected the national culture with European civi­lization. The services of Mekhitarists in these two spheres of activity are ines­timable, as the spreading of cultural influence is a necessary condition of human civilization development and its perspective path.