He was born in the city of
Gandzak.[6] He got his early education from public institutions. When he reached his adolescence he decided to dedicate his life to the church. To learn theology more thoroughly, Gosh traveled to
Cilicia, to the Black Mountains (Sev lerner), and studied orthodox theology under the local priests. Upon his return, he, along with the princes'
Zakare and Ivane Zakarian financial help, built
the church of Getik.
He wrote
a code of laws including
civil and
canon law that was used in both
Greater Armenia and
Cilicia. It was also used in
Poland, by order of king
Sigismund the Old, as the law under which the Armenians of
Lviv and
Kamianets-Podilskyi lived from 1519 until the region fell under Austrian rule in 1772. He also wrote several popular fables. He founded the monastery of Nor Getik, where he was later buried. Ever since his death it has become better known as
Goshavank. The works of Mkhitar Gosh were later adapted into a law codex in
Middle Armenian, which was prepared by
Sempad the Constable, a 13th-century Cilician Armenian noble, military commander, and judge.[7]
^Robert W. Thomson. The Lawcode (Datastanagirk') of Mxit'ar Goš. — Rodopi, 2000. — p. 20: "In any event, his motivation stemmed from the fact that the Armenians of his time did not have a written legal code, and therefore those who wished to settle any legal question had to have recourse to outsiders."
^Antony Eastmond. Tamta's World. —
Cambridge University Press, 2017. — P. 126 "At the same time Mkhitar Gosh (d. 1213), the great Armenian jurist, poet, and theologian, worked for the
Mkhargrdzelis from the monasteries of Getik and then Goshavank, both of which were sited well away from any large settlements."
^Encyclopedia Americana. — Americana Corporation, 1965. — vol. 2. — p. 270: "The Armenian Renaissance reached its height in this period, with the works of the Vardapet Hovhannes (John) Sarkawag (d. 1129), ... Hetum, author of Narratives of the Tatars and Chronological Tables; Hovhan Erzenkatsi (John of Erzincan), moralist, theologian, poet, and grammarian; Nerses Lambro- natsi (Nerses of Lambron, 1153-1198), theologian, moralist, and orator ; Mekhitar Gosh (d. 1213), who compiled the Armenian Code"