As he was respected through all the region, there was great anxiety among the Armenians to regain him, and an ex-Patriarch visited Baghchejuk, in the hope of bringing him back.
Promises and threats were equally vain, and the storm of persecution finally burst upon him.

His vineyards and mulberry orchards were cut down, and much of his property was wrested from him.

He was beaten and stoned, and his name cast out as vile.

When they were building the church he brought a basket full of stones and brick-bats, which had been thrown through his windows, to be incorporated in the foundation wall.

He described the effect of persecution in his own case, thus: "The truth in my heart was like a stake slightly driven into soft ground, easily swayed, and in danger of falling before the wind; but by the sledge-hammer of persecution God drove it in till it became immovable." "His working power," says Mr.Parsons, the resident missionary, "like everything else in his possession, was consecrated to Christ.