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Gregory the Illuminator

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Saint
Gregory the Illuminator
Gregory the Illuminator
Catholicos of All Armenians
(Patriarch of Armenia)
Born 3rd century
Kingdom of Armenia
Died c. 331
Daranali, Kingdom of Armenia
(present-day Kemah, Erzincan, Turkey)
Venerated in Armenian Apostolic Church
Oriental Orthodox Churches
Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
Anglican Communion
Feast February 20 (Nardò, Italy)
March 23 (Anglican Church)
Saturday before fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Armenian Apostolic Church – discovery of relics)
Last Saturday of Lent (Armenian Apostolic Church – descent into dungeon)
Saturday before second Sunday after Pentecost (Armenian Apostolic Church – deliverance from dungeon)
September 29 (Coptic Orthodox Church – Deliverance from Dungeon)
September 30 (Eastern Orthodoxy, Syriac Orthodox Church, Catholic Church)
October 1 (Catholic Church- 1962 Roman Missal)
December 24 (Coptic Orthodox Church – Departure)
Patronage Armenia; Nardò, Italy

Gregory the Illuminator[1][2] (c. 257 – c. 331) was the founder and first official head of the Armenian Apostolic Church.[3] He converted Armenia from Zoroastrianism[4][5] to Christianity in the early fourth century (traditionally dated to 301), making Armenia the first state to adopt Christianity as its official religion. He is venerated as a saint in the Armenian Apostolic Church and in some other churches.

Gregory is said to have been the son of a Parthian nobleman, Anak, who assassinated the Arsacid king of Armenia Khosrov. The young Gregory was saved from the extermination of Anak's family and was raised as a Christian in Caesarea of Cappadocia, then part of the Roman Empire. Gregory returned to Armenia as an adult and entered the service of King Tiridates III, who had Gregory tortured after he refused to make a sacrifice to a pagan goddess. After discovering Gregory's true identity, Tiridates had him thrown into a deep pit well called Khor Virap for 14 years. Gregory was miraculously saved from death and released after many years with the help of Tiridates' sister Khosrovidukht. Gregory then converted the King to Christianity, and Armenia then became the first country to adopt Christianity as a state religion in 301 AD. Gregory, the Illuminator, then healed King Tiridates, who the hagiographical sources say had been driven mad by his sins, and preached Christianity in Armenia. He was consecrated bishop of Armenia at Caesarea, baptized King Tiridates and the Armenian people, and traveled throughout Armenia, destroying pagan temples and building churches in their place.

Gregory eventually gave up the patriarchate to live as a hermit and was succeeded by his son Aristaces. Gregory's descendants, called the Gregorids, hereditarily held the office of Patriarch of Armenia with some interruptions until the fifth century. It is in Gregory's honor that the Armenian Church is sometimes called lusavorchakan ("of the Illuminator") or Gregorian.[6]

Early life

In the Armenian tradition, the standard version of the life of Gregory the Illuminator derives from the fifth-century hagiographic history attributed to Agathangelos.[7] According to Agathangelos's account, Gregory was the son of the Parthian nobleman Anak; the later Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi identifies Anak as a member of the Parthian noble house of Suren.[8][9] At the incitation of the Sasanian king Ardashir I, who promised to return Anak his domain as a reward, the Parthian nobleman went to Armenia and assassinated the Arsacid king of Armenia Khosrov after gaining his confidence.[10][11] Anak was then put to death by the Armenian nobles along with his entire family․[10] Anak's son Gregory narrowly escaped execution with the help of his nurse, whom Khorenatsi calls Sophy, sister of a Cappadocian notable named Euthalius (Ewtʻał).[12] Gregory was taken to Caesarea in Cappadocia, where he received a Christian upbringing.[13]

Josef Markwart distrusted the traditional account, suggesting instead that Gregory grew up near the Roman-Armenian border, perhaps in Neocaesarea or in Lesser Armenia and spoke both Armenian and Greek.[14] According to historian Nicholas Adontz, it is likely that there were originally two independent traditions about the origins of Gregory the Illuminator, both giving the founder of the Armenian church a noble origin; these traditions were combined in the main Armenian version of Agathangelos.[15] The story of Anak serves to connect Gregory to the Arsacid dynasty as a descendant of the Parthian clan of Suren, and also makes Gregory's early life reflect that of Tiridates III in epic fashion.[15] Jean-Michel Thierry described him as of "Cappadocian culture and religion" and credited him with having introduced "Greek civilization to Armenia."[16]

According to Khorenatsi, upon coming of age, Gregory married Mariam, daughter of a Christian named David.[17][18] He had two children with Mariam: Aristaces and Vrtanes, who would later succeed Gregory as patriarchs of Armenia.[17][18]

Christianization of Armenia

After the birth of their sons, Mariam and Gregory separated, and Gregory went to Armenia to enter the service of King Tiridates III, son of the assassinated king Khosrov II.[19] After Gregory refused to sacrifice to the goddess Anahit, the king had Gregory imprisoned and subjected to many tortures.[20] Once Tiridates discovered that Gregory was the son of his father's killer, he had Gregory thrown into a deep pit called Khor Virap near Artaxata, where he remained for thirteen (or fifteen) years.[21] In Agathangelos's history, Gregory is miraculously saved and brought out from the pit after Tiridates' sister Khosrovidukht sees a vision.[22] Gregory then healed the king, who, Agathangelos writes, had been driven into animal madness for his sinful behavior.[23] Tiridates and his court accepted Christianity, making Armenia the first state to adopt Christianity as its official religion.[24][25]

After being released, Gregory preached the Christian faith in Armenia and erected shrines to the martyrs Gayane and Hripsime in Vagharshapat on a spot indicated to him in a vision.[22][26] Vagharshapat would later become home to the mother church of Armenian Christianity and, by medieval times, called Ejmiatsin ("descent of the only-begotten") in reference to Gregory's vision.[27][28] Gregory, sometimes accompanied by Tiridates,[29] went around Armenia destroying pagan temples, defeating the armed resistance of the pagan priests.[30] Gregory then went to Caesarea with a retinue of Armenian princes and was consecrated bishop of Armenia by Leontius of Caesarea.[22] Until the death of Nerses I in the late fourth century, Gregory's successors would go to Caesarea to be confirmed as bishops of Armenia, and Armenia remained under the titular authority of the metropolitans of Caesarea.[31]

Returning to Armenia, Gregory raised churches in place of the destroyed pagan temples and seized their estates and wealth for the Armenian Church and his house.[29][32] On the site of the destroyed temple to Vahagn at Ashtishat, Gregory raised a church which became the original center of the Armenian Church and remained so until after the partition of the country in 387.[33][29] Gregory met King Tiridates near the town of Bagavan and baptized the Armenian king, army and people in the Euphrates.[33] In two non-Armenian versions of Agathangelos's history, Gregory also baptizes together with Tiridates the kings of Caucasian Albania, Georgia and Lazica/Abkhazia.[34] He founded schools for the Christian education of children, where the languages of instruction were Greek and Syriac.[6][35] He established the ecclesiastical structure of Armenia, appointing as bishops some of the children of pagan priests.[6][36] Gregory is also said to have journeyed to Rome with King Tiridates in an embassy to the recently converted Constantine the Great, but scholar Robert W. Thomson views this as fictional.[24]

The conversion of Armenia to Christianity is traditionally dated to 301, but modern scholarship considers a later date, approximately 314, to be more likely.[37] Additionally, the history of Agathangelos depicts the spread of Christianity of Armenia as having occurred practically entirely within Gregory's lifetime, when, in fact, it was a more gradual process.[38][39]

Retirement and death

Some time after converting Armenia to Christianity, Gregory appointed his younger son Aristaces as his successor and went to live an ascetic life in the "cave of Manē" in the district of Daranali in Upper Armenia.[40][41] The Patriarchate of Armenia would be held as a hereditary office, with some interruptions, by the house of Gregory, called the Gregorids, until the death of Patriarch Isaac in the fifth century.[42][43] According to Movses Khorenatsi, Gregory sometimes came out from his hermitage and traveled around the country until Aristaces returned from the Council of Nicaea (325), after which Gregory never appeared to anyone again.[44] He died in seclusion in the cave of Manē and was buried nearby by shepherds who did not know who he was.[45] All of the sources indicate that Gregory's death occurred not long after the Council of Nicaea; Cyril Toumanoff gives 328 as the year of Gregory's death.[46]

Historical assessment

Levon Ter-Petrosyan, philologist and Armenia's first president, postulates that Gregory and Mesrop Mashtots had the most influence on the course of Armenian history.[47] James R. Russell argues that both Gregory and Mashtots were visionaries, found a champion for their program in the king, looked to the West, had very strong pro-Hellenic bias, trained the children of pagan priests and assembled their own disciples to spread the faith through learning.[48]

Relics and veneration

After his death his corpse was removed to the village of Thodanum (T'ordan, modern Doğanköy, Kemah, near Erzincan).

The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the Armenian Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia, the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople each claim to have relics from the right arm of the saint, in an arm-shaped reliquary.[49] The catholicosates of Etchmiadzin and Cilicia use the arm relic for the blessing of the Holy Myron every seven years.

In the calendar of the Armenian Church, the discovery of the relics of St. Gregory is an important feast and is commemorated on the Saturday before the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost.[50] Two other feast days in the Armenian Apostolic Church are devoted to St. Gregory: the feast of his entry into Khor Virap, the 'deep pit or dungeon' (commemorated on the last Saturday of Lent) and his deliverance from Khor Virap (commemorated on the Saturday before the second Sunday after Pentecost).[51]

Depictions in Armenian art

Gregory has been depicted widely in Armenian art since the early Middle Ages on various media. He is most likely the figure, a saint, carved on a seventh-century stele in Talin.[52] He is depicted next to John the Baptist, the prophet Elijah, and most likely Thaddeus, James of Nisibis, and the apostle Bartholomew on the east façade of the tenth-century Aghtamar Cathedral in Lake Van.[53] Sixteen scenes depicting Gregory's life are painted in the Church of Tigran Honents in Ani (1215), that contains the most complete painted interior of all medieval Armenian monuments.[54]

Gregory is depicted on the silver reliquary of Skevra (1293), the best known work of precious metal from Armenian Cilicia, along with Saint Thaddeus,[55] and on the reliquary of the Holy Sign (1300), another significant piece of Armenian metalwork made at the Monastery of Khotakerats, along with John the Baptist.[56] Gregory is depicted with King Trdat on the left and Hripsime on a 1448 processional banner of embroidered silk kept at the Treasury of Etchmiadzin.[57] At the Vank Cathedral in New Julfa, the Armenian district of Isfahan, Iran, Gregory's martyrdom was painted in a European style by the Italian-trained Hovhannes M'rkuz Jułayeci in 1646.[58]

Byzantium and the Eastern Orthodox world

Gregory is commemorated on September 30 by the Eastern Orthodox Church, which styles him "Holy Hieromartyr Gregory, Bishop of Greater Armenia, Equal of the Apostles and Enlightener of Armenia."

His relics were scattered near and far in the reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno.[59] Relic fragments are found at the Karakallou Monastery and Iviron Monastery on Mount Athos; the Gregoriou Monastery claims to have the saint's skull.[60]

Veneration of Gregory began in the Byzantine Empire in the late 9th century with the ascend of Basil I. A 9th century mosaic of Gregory was uncovered in Hagia Sophia under a layer of plaster in 1847–49 during the restoration by the Fossati brothers.[61] Located in the south tympanum, next to the Fathers of the Church, it shows Gregory standing in bishop robes, blessing with one hand and holding the Book of the Gospels with the other.[62] The mosaic, thought to have been destroyed in the 1894 earthquake, survives in drawing by Wilhelm Salzenberg and the Fossati brothers. Sirarpie Der Nersessian argued that his inclusion in the series of the Church Fathers is explained by the myth of the Arsacid origin of Basil I, likely fabricated by Patriarch Photios I of Constantinople.[63][64]

Gregory is depicted in two prominent Byzantine illuminated manuscripts—the Menologion of Basil II (c. 1000)[65] and the Theodore Psalter (1066)[66][67]—and in a number of Byzantine churches and monasteries, most notably Hosios Loukas (11th century),[68] Church of Panagia Chalkeon in Thessaloniki (11th century), and the Pammakaristos Church in Constantinople (14th century).[69]

One of the sections of Moscow's iconic Saint Basil's Cathedral is named after Gregory the Armenian (Tserkov Grigoriya Armyanskogo). It is dedicated to the capture of Ars Tower of the Kazan Kremlin by Ivan the Terrible during the Siege of Kazan on September 30, 1552, on his feast day.[70]

Italy and the Roman Catholic world

In the 8th century, the iconoclast decrees in Greece caused a number of religious orders to flee the Byzantine Empire and seek refuge elsewhere. San Gregorio Armeno in Naples was built in that century over the remains of a Roman temple dedicated to Ceres, by a group of nuns escaping from the Byzantine Empire with the relics of Gregory,[71] including his skull, arms, a femur bone, his staff, the leather straps used in his torture and the manacles that held the saint.[72][73] The femur and manacles were returned by Pope John Paul II to Catholicos Karekin II and are now enshrined at Saint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral in Yerevan.[74]

On February 20, 1743, Nardò, Italy was hit by a devastating earthquake that destroyed almost the entire city. The only structure to survive intact after the quake was the city's statue of St. Gregory the Illuminator. According to the city's registers, only 350 out of the city's 10,000 inhabitants died in the earthquake, leading the inhabitants to believe that St. Gregory saved the city. Every year, they mark the anniversary of the earthquake by holding three days of celebrations in his honor. Two relics of the saint are at Nardò Cathedral: one is kept in a silver bust of the saint,[75] which is carried in processions, and the other, the metacarpus, is kept within a silver arm-shaped reliquary.[76]

The feast day of Saint Gregory the Illuminator is on September 30 according to both the 2004 Roman Martyrology of the Ordinary Form and the 1956 Roman Martyrology[77] of the Extraordinary Form of the Catholic Church; however, the 1962 Roman Missal[78] and its previous editions list the feast day of "Saint Gregory, Bishop of Greater Armenia and Martyr" on October 1.

A 5.7 m (19 ft) tall statue of Gregory in the Carrara marble was installed in the north courtyard of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City in January 2005. Sculpted by France-based Lebanese-Armenian sculptor Khatchik Kazandjian, the statue was inaugurated by Pope John Paul II. Gregory is depicted holding a cross in one hand and the Bible in the other.[79] Pope Benedict XVI inaugurated the area as St. Gregory the Illuminator Courtyard in February 2008.[80]

Church of San Gregorio Armeno is a church and a monastery in Naples, Italy named after the Gregory the Illuminator

Anglican Communion

He is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) and in the Anglican Church of Canada on March 23.[81][82]

Oriental Orthodox Church

Historically, Gregory the Illuminator has been commemorated in the Coptic Orthodox Church with various feast days (Thout 19, Thout 30, Babah 3, and Kiahk 15) from as early as the seventh century.[83] In current liturgical practice, his feast days are Thout 19 (September 29),[84] commemorating his ascent from the pit, and Kiahk 15 (December 24),[85] commemorating his departure.[86][87] Similarly, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church commemorates him on September 29 and December 24.[88]

See also

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Gregory the Illuminator — Born 257?; died 337?, surnamed the Illuminator (Lusavorich).

Gregory the Illuminator is the apostle, national saint, and patron of Armenia. He was not the first who introduced Christianity into that country. The Armenians maintain that the faith was preached there by the Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddaeus. Thaddaeus especially (the hero of the story of King Abgar of Edessa and the portrait of Christ) has been taken over by the Armenians, with the whole story. Abgar in their version becomes a King of Armenia; thus their land is the first of all to turn Christian. It is certain that there were Christians, even bishops, in Armenia before St. Gregory. The south Edessa and Nisibis especially, which accounts for the Armenian adoption of the Edessene story. A certain Dionysius of Alexandria (248-265) wrote them a letter "about penitence" (Euseb., "Hist. Eccl.", VI, xlvi). This earliest Church was then destroyed by the Persians. Ardashir I, the founder of the Sassanid dynasty (226), restored, even extended, the old power of Persia. Armenia, always the exposed frontier state between Rome and Persia, was overrun by Ardashir's army (Khosrov I of Armenia had taken the side of the old Arsacid dynasty); and the principle of uniformity in the Mazdean religion, that the Sassanids made a chief feature of their policy, was also applied to the subject kingdom. A Parthian named Anak murdered Khosrov by Ardashir's orders, who then tried to exterminate the whole Armenian royal family. But a son of Khosrov, Trdat (Tiridates), escaped was trained in the Roman army, and eventually came back to drive out the persians and restore the Armenian kingdom.

In this restoration St. Gregory played an important part. He had been brought up as a Christian at Caesarea in Cappadocia. He seems to have belonged to an illustrious Armenian family. He was married and had two sons (called Aristakes and Bardanes in the Greek text of Moses of Kkhorni; see below). Gregory, after being himself persecuted by King Trdat, who at first defended the old Armenian religion, eventually converted him, and with him spread the Christian faith throughout the country. Trdat became so much a Christian that he made Christianity the national faith; the nobility seem to have followed his example easily, then the people followed — or were induced to follow — too. This happened while Diocletian was emperor (284-305), so that Armenia has a right to her claim of being the first Christian State. The temples were made into churches and the people baptized in thousands. So completely were the remains of the old heathendom effaced that we know practically nothing about the original Armenian religion (as distinct from Mazdeism), except the names of some gods whose temples were destroyed or converted (the chief temple at Ashtishat was dedicated to Vahagn, Anahit and Astlik; Vanatur was worshipped in the North round Mount Ararat, etc.). Meanwhile Gregory had gone back to Caessarea to be ordained. Leontius of Caesarea made him bishop of the Armenians; from this time till the Monophysite schism the Church of Armenia depended on Casearea, and the Armenian primates (called Catholicoi, only much later patriarchs) went there to be ordained. Gregory set up other bishops throughout the land and fixed his residence at Ashtishat (in the province of Taron), where the temple had been made into the church of Christ, "mother of all Armenian churches". He preached in the national language and used it for the liturgy. This, too, helped to give the Armenian Church the markedly national character that it still has, more, perhaps, than any other in Christendom. Towards the end of his life he retired and was succeeded as Catholicos by his son Aristakes. Aristakes was present at the First General Council, in 325. Gregory died and was buried at Thortan. A monastery was built near his grave. His relics were afterwards taken to Constantinople, but apparently brough back again to Armenia. Part of these relics are said to have been taken to Naples during the Iconoclast troubles.

This is what can be said with some certainty about the Apostle of Armenia; but a famous life of him by Aganthangelos (see below) embellishes the narrative with wonderful stories that need not be taken very seriously. According to this life, he was the son of the Parthian Anak who had murdered King Khosrov I. Anak in trying to escape was drowned in the Araxes with all his family except two sons, of whom one went to Persia, the other (the subject of this article) was taken by his Christian nurse to Caesarea and there baptized Gregory, in accordance with what she had been told in vision. Soon after his marriage, Gregory parted from his wife (who became a nun) and came back to Armenia. Here he refused to take part in a great sacrifice to the national gods ordered by King Trdat, and declared himself a Christian. He was then tortured in various horrible ways, all the more when the king discovered that he was the son of his father's murderer. After being subjected to a variety of tortures (they scourged him, and put his head in a bag of ashes, poured molten lead over him, etc.) he was thrown into a pit full of dead bodies, poisonous filth, and serpents. He spent fifteen years in this pit, being fed by bread that a pious widow brought him daily. Meanwhile Trdat goes from bad to worse. A holy virgin named Rhipsime, who resists the king's advances and is martyred, here plays a great part in the story. Evenetually, as a punishment for his wickedness, the king is turned into a boar and possessed by a devil. A vision now reveals to the monarch's sisters that nothing can save him but the prayers of Gregory. At first no one will attend to this revelation, since they all think Gregory dead long ago. Eventually they seek and find him in the pit. He comes out, exorcizes the evil spirit and restores the king, and then begins preaching. Here a long discourse is put into the saint's mouth — so long that it takes up more than half his life. It is simply a compendium of what the Armenian Church believed at the time that it was written (fifth century). It begins with an account of Bible history and goes on to dogmatic theology. Arianism, Nestorianism and all the other heresies up to Monophysite times are refuted. The discourse bears the stamp of the latter half of the fifth century so plainly that, even without the fact that earlier writers who quote Agathangelos (Moses of Khorni, etc.) do not know it, no one could doubt that it is the composition of an Armenian theologian of that time, inserted into the life that was already full enough of wonders. Nevertheles this "Confession of Gregory the Illuminator" was accepted as authentic and used as a kind of official creed by the Armenian Church during all the centuries that followed. Even now it is only the more liberal theologians among them who dispute its genuiness.

The life goes on to tell us of Gregory's fast of seventy days that followed his rescue from the pit, of the conversion, and of their journeys throughout the land with the army to put down paganism. The false gods fight against the army like men or devils, but are always defeated by Trdat's arms and Gregory's prayers and are eventually driven into the Caucasus. The story of the saint's ordination and of the establishment of the hierarchy is told with the same adornment. He baptized four million persons in seven days. He ordained and sent out twelve apostolic bishops, and sons of heathen priests. Eventually he ruled a church of four hundred bishops and priests too numerous to count. He and Trdat hear of Constantine's conversion; they set out with an army of 70,000 men to congratulate him. Constantine, who had just been baptized at Rome by Pope Silvester, forms an alliance with Trdat; the pope warmly welcomes Gregory (there are a number of forged letters between Silvester and Gregory, see below) — and so on. It would not be difficult to find the models for all these stories. Gregory in the pit acts like Daniel in the lion's den. Trdat as a boar is Nabuchodonosor; the battles of the king's army against the heather and their gods have obvious precedents in the Old Testament. Gregory is now Elias, now Isaias, now John the Baptist, till his sending out his twelve apostles suggests a still greater model. The writer of the life calls himself Agathangelos, chamberlain or secretary of King Trdat. It was composed from vaious sources after the year 456 (see Gutschmid, below) in Armenian, though sources may have been partly Greek or Syriac (cf. Lagarde). The life was soon translated into Greek used by Symeon Metaphrastes, and further rendered into Latin in the tenth century. During the Middle Ages this life was the invariable source for the saint's history. The Armenians (Monophysites and Uniates) keep the feast of their apostle on 30 September, when his relics were deposed at Thortan. They have many other feasts to commemorate his birth (August 5), sufferings (February 4), going into the pit ( February 28), coming out of the pit (October 19), etc. (Niles "Kalendarium Manuale", 2nd ed., Innsbruck 1897, II, 577). The Byzantine Church keeps his feast (Gregorios ho phoster) on 30 September, as do also the Syrians (Nilles, I, 290-292). Pope Gregory XVI, in September, 1837, admitted his namesake to the Reman Calendar; and appointed 1 October as his feast (among the festa pro aliquibus locis).

AGATHANGELOS'S Life of St. Gregory was published in Armenian by the MECHITARISTS at Venice, in 1835 (reprinted at Tiflis, in 1882); translated into french and Italian (Venice, 1843). the Greek text was edited by STILTING in the Acta SS., Sept. VIII, 320 sqq; and again by LAGARDE, Agathangelos in Alhandl. der Gottinger Gesellschaft (1889). See also GUTSCHMID, Agathangelos in Zeitschrift der Deutschen, Morgenland. Geselischaft (1877), I. MOSES OF KHORNI (MOYSES CHORENVENNIS) in his History of Aremnia (III books, VII or VIII cent., ed by the MERCHITARISTS, Venice, 1843; in French by LE VAILLANT DE FLORIVAL, Parish, 1847; italian by TOMMASEO, Venice 1850) uses Agathangelos. See GUTSCHMID, Moses von Chorene in his Kleine Schriften, III, 332 sqq.; and CARRIERE, Nouvelles sources de Moise de Kkhoren (Vienna, 1893). FAUSTUS OF BYZANTIUM (fifth century) tells the story of the conversion of Armenia (Aremnian tr., Venice, 1832); French by LANGLOIS, Collection des historiens anciens et modernes de l'Armenic (2 vols., Paris, 1867, 1869). I; German by LAUER (Cologne, 1879). GELZER, Die Anfange der armenischen Kirche in Sitzungsberichte der Gottinger Gesellschaft 91895), 109 sqq. THUMAIAN, Agathangelos et la doctrine de l'Eglise armenienne au V siècle (Lausanne, 1879). The so-called letters between Pope Silvester I and St. Gregory are printed in AZARIAN, Ecclesiae armeniae traditio de romani pontificis primatau (Rome, 1870).

References

  1. Back to citation Armenian: Grigor Lusavorich, classical spelling: Գրիգոր Լուսաւորիչ, reformed spelling: Գրիգոր Լուսավորիչ, Western Armenian pronunciation: Krikor Lusavorich.
  2. Back to citation He is less commonly known as Gregory the Enlightener. "St. Gregory the Enlightener". armenianchurch.us. Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America. Archived from the original on 30 August 2022. Schaff, Philip (1867). From Constantine the Great to Gregory the Great, A.D. 311-600, Volume III. New York: Charles Scribner and Company. p. 779. Outside Armenia, he is often known as Gregory of Armenia or Gregory the Armenian. In Armenian, he is sometimes referred to as Gregory the Parthian (Գրիգոր Պարթեւ, Grigor Part’ev).
  3. Back to citation The Armenian Apostolic Church, as its name suggests, traces its founding to the apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew, who are said to have preached Christianity in Armenia in the first century. Lang 1970, p. 155.
  4. Back to citation Nersessian, Vrej (2001). Treasures from the Ark: 1700 Years of Armenian Christian Art. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. p. 18. ISBN 9780892366392. “The second break was initiated by the ascendance of Christianity over Zoroastrianism as Armenia's state religion.”
  5. Back to citation Lint, Theo Maarten Van (2010). "The Formation Of Armenian Identity In The First Millenium". Religious Origins of Nations?. Brill. pp. 251–278. ISBN 978-90-474-4436-7.
  6. Back to citation occurrence 6.0 Back to citation occurrence 6.1 Back to citation occurrence 6.2 "Grigor I Lusavorichʻ," Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia 1977.
  7. Back to citation Thomson 1994, p. 15.
  8. Back to citation Lang 1970, pp. 155–156.
  9. Back to citation Garsoïan 1989, p. 347.
  10. Back to citation occurrence 10.0 Back to citation occurrence 10.1 Garsoïan 1997, p. 72.
  11. Back to citation There is no conclusive chronology of the reigns of Armenian kings of the third century, Garsoïan 1997, p. 75: "Unfortunately, the chaotic and mutually contradictory chronologies of the Armenian sources and the absence of additional contemporary evidence permit no definite conclusions to date, and all reconstructions, no matter how attractive, must still remain provisional." so it is not clear with which third-century Armenian king or kings this story should be associated.
  12. Back to citation Thomson 1978, p. 228.
  13. Back to citation Thomson 1994, pp. 15–16.
  14. Back to citation Marquart, Joseph (1917). Über den Ursprung des armenischen Alphabets in Verbindung mit der Biographie des heil. Mašt'oc' [On the Origin of the Armenian Alphabet in Connection with the Biography of Saint Mašt'oc'] (in German). Vienna: Mechitharisten-Buchdr. pp. 3-4.
  15. Back to citation occurrence 15.0 Back to citation occurrence 15.1 Adonts 2006, pp. 171–172.
  16. Back to citation Thierry, Jean-Michel; Donabédian, Patrick (1989) [1987]. Armenian Art. Translated by Celestine Dars. New York: Harry N. Abrams. p. 49. ISBN 0-8109-0625-2.
  17. Back to citation occurrence 17.0 Back to citation occurrence 17.1 Thomson 1978, pp. 228–229.
  18. Back to citation occurrence 18.0 Back to citation occurrence 18.1 Thomson 1976, pp. xxxi–xxxii.
  19. Back to citation Thomson 1976, pp. xxxi–xxxii; Garsoïan 1997, p. 81; One Greek version of Agathangelos tells a significantly different story of Gregory's wife, who is called Julitta. In this version, Gregory's wife and sons are implied to have followed him to Armenia, but fled back to Caesarea after Gregory's imprisonment. After Gregory was released from imprisonment, his wife went to Armenia to join him, leaving behind their sons in Caesarea, but Gregory refused to return to married life, instead asking the king to put his wife in charge of the holy virgins and temporarily lead the Christians in worship. Thomson 1976, pp. xxxii–xxxiii.
  20. Back to citation Thomson 1976, pp. xlii–xliii.
  21. Back to citation Garsoïan 1997, p. 81; Lang 1970, p. 156; Thomson 1984.
  22. Back to citation occurrence 22.0 Back to citation occurrence 22.1 Back to citation occurrence 22.2 Garsoïan 1997, p. 81.
  23. Back to citation Agathangelos 2020.
  24. Back to citation occurrence 24.0 Back to citation occurrence 24.1 Thomson 1994, p. 16.
  25. Back to citation Interpretations that favor an earlier date for Tiridates' conversion argue that the Armenian king had grown disillusioned with his alliance with Rome and stopped following Diocletian's anti-Christian policy, instead adopting Christianity to strengthen the state and further separate Armenia from Rome and Persia. "Grigor I Lusavorichʻ," Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia 1977. Those who favor the later date of 314 argue that Tiridates, as a loyal client-king of Rome, could not have set up Christianity as Armenia's state religion in contradiction to Rome's anti-Christian policy at the time, and place the conversion after the Edict of Milan in 313. Garsoïan 1997, p. 82.
  26. Back to citation Scholar Robert W. Thomson notes that, although Vagharshapat-Ejmiatsin had "clearly been a holy shrine" from early on in Christian Armenian history, the association of Gregory with Vagharshapat dates from after the partition of Armenia in 387, when the mother see of the Armenian Church moved to Eastern Armenia. The actual original center of the Armenian Church was at Ashtishat. Thomson 1984. Thomson 1994, p. 19.
  27. Back to citation Thomson 1976, p. 478.
  28. Back to citation The figure who appears to Gregory was later identified with Christ in the Armenian tradition, although this is not explicitly stated in Agathangelos. Thomson 1994, p. 19.
  29. Back to citation occurrence 29.0 Back to citation occurrence 29.1 Back to citation occurrence 29.2 Thomson 1994, p. 19.
  30. Back to citation Russell 2004, p. 358.
  31. Back to citation Thomson 1976, p. lxxix.
  32. Back to citation According to the fifth-century history attributed to Faustus of Byzantium, by the time of Gregory's descendant Patriarch Nerses I, the domains of the Gregorid house amounted to fifteen districts (gawaṛs). Garsoïan 1989, p. 139.
  33. Back to citation occurrence 33.0 Back to citation occurrence 33.1 Garsoïan 1997, pp. 81–82.
  34. Back to citation Thomson 1976, pp. lxviii–lxix.
  35. Back to citation Thomson 1976, p. 375.
  36. Back to citation Thomson 1976, p. 379: "He took some of the pagan priests' children and brought them up in his own sight and under his own care, giving them instruction and raising them with spiritual care and fear. Those who were worthy of attaining the rank of bishop received ordination from him".
  37. Back to citation Garsoïan 1997, p. 82.
  38. Back to citation Thomson 1994, p. 22.
  39. Back to citation Garsoïan 1997, pp. 82–83.
  40. Back to citation Garsoïan 1989, p. 375.
  41. Back to citation Agathangelos writes that King Tiridates sent for Aristaces and Vrtanes and had them brought to Armenia from Caesarea after Gregory went to live in seclusion. Thomson 1976, pp. 393–397.
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  43. Back to citation Terian 2005, p. 76.
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Bibliography

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