The Mechitarists (Armenian: Մխիթարեաններ, also spelled Mekhitarists), are a congregation of Benedictine monks of the Armenian Catholic Church founded in 1717 by Abbot Mechitar of Sebastia. They are best known for their series of scholarly publications of ancient Armenian versions of otherwise lost ancient Greek texts and their research on classical and modern Armenian language.

Their eponymous founder, Mekhitar, was born at Sebastia in Ottoman Empire in 1676. He entered a monastery, but was concerned about the level of culture and education in Armenia under Turkish rule at that period, and sought to do something about it. Contacts with Western missionaries led him to become interested in translating material from the West into Armenian and setting up an order to facilitate education.

Mechitar set out for Rome in 1695 to make his ecclesiastical studies there, but he was compelled by illness to abandon the journey and return to Armenia. In 1696 he was ordained priest and for four years worked among his people.