Narek

Narek was a place first. It was a monastery above Lake Van, in historic Armenia, and it gave its name to the monk who lived there and to the book he left behind. Grigor Narekatsi wrote his Book of Lamentations around the year 1000, and Armenians have called it, for a thousand years, simply the Narek.

The short meaning fixed to the name, place of refuge and sanctuary, grew from that setting. The monastery gave shelter, and later the book did too. Armenian households kept a copy near anyone who was ill, sometimes tucked under a pillow, trusting its prayers to ease the night.

Pope Francis named Grigor Narekatsi a Doctor of the Church in 2015, which put the old monastery back in the news.

In Poland the name arrives with no diminutives and no variants, short and complete. A teacher reading a class register meets it once and remembers it. Behind the four letters sits a sanctuary above a lake, and a book that people trusted to keep them safe.