Sahakdoukht de Sioumie (~720) 

Sister of music theorist and Greek translator Stepanos Syunetsi. After his murder, she fell into a deep grief and decided to retreat to an ascetic life in a cave; there she produced ecclesiastical poems as well as liturgical chants. Sibil (Armenian author) notes in 1909, “1200 years ago the Armenian took great interest in women’s education. It may come as a surprise when I say that Stephan Siunetsi’s sister, Sahakdukht, established a music school in eighth-century Armenian; today such schools, which are the mark of a civilized nation, do not exist.”