San Lazzaro is a small island which has been home to the monastery of the Mekhitarists, an Armenian Catholic congregation, since 1717.

San Lazzaro is usually ranked as the third largest collection of  Armenian manuscripts in the world after the Matenadaran in Yerevan, Armenia and the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The manuscript collection is kept in the rotunda-shaped tower, called the Manuscript Room. The manuscript collection of San Lazzaro consists of over 3,000 complete volumes and about 2,000 fragments. 

This shawl was inspired by "Gandzaran" prayer book preserved by the Mekhitarists.