in 1701, in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The order moved to Modone (Methoni), on the southern shore of the Peloponnese, in 1703, after repressions by the Ottoman government and the Armenian Apostolic Church. In 1712 the order received recognition by Pope Clement XI. Victor Langlois wrote that a Venetian admiral and the Venetian governor of Morea, "sympathizing deeply with the fearful distress of the unfortunate community, yielded to their earnest entreaties for permission to embark on a government vessel which was about to leave for Venice." On September 8, 1717, on the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, the Venetian Senate ceded San Lazzaro to Mkhitar and his companions, who agreed not to rename the island. He was reminded of the monastery on the island of Lake Sevan, where he had sought education earlier in his life. Upon acquisition, the monks began works of restoration of existing buildings on the island. The entire community then relocated to the island in April 1718 when the buildings on San Lazzaro became habitable. Mkhitar himself designed the plan of the monastery, which was completed by 1840. The monastery originally included 16 cells for monks, which were adjusted from the old hospital. The church's restoration lasted from May to November 1722. Mkhitar died in 1749. The bell tower was completed a year later, in 1750. Later history The Venetian Republic was disestablished by Napoleon in 1797. In 1810, he abolished all monastic orders of Venice and the Kingdom of Italy, except that of the Mekhitarists in San Lazzaro. The Mekhitarist congregation was left in peace, according to some sources, due to the intercession of Roustam Raza, Napoleon's Mamluk bodyguard of Armenian origin. Napoleon signed a decree, dated August 27, 1810, which declared that the congregation may continue to exist as an academy. Since then, San Lazzaro has also known as an academy and sometimes referred to in Latin as Academia Armena Sancti Lazari. The monastery has been enlarged significantly through land reclamation four time since the 19th century. First, in 1815, the Mekhitarists were permitted by Austrian Emperor Francis I to expand the island. The area north of the island was filled which doubled its area from 7,900m² to 13,700 m2. In 1836, a boundary wall around the island's newly reclaimed area was built. The channel of the boathouse was filled in 1912 and it was moved to the far western