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Biography

(about 252-326)

From 301 - began to preach the Gospel.

In 302 - he was ordained bishop by Bishop Leontius of Cappadocia in Caesarea, after which he built a temple in the city of Vagharshapat - the capital of King Trdat III. The temple was named Etchmiadzin, which translated means “the Only Begotten descended” (i.e. Jesus Christ), who, according to legend, personally showed Gregory the place to build the temple.

In 325 - he was invited to the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, but did not have the opportunity to go himself and sent his son Aristakes there, who brought the Nicene decrees to Armenia.

In 325, he handed over the department to his son, and he himself retired into solitude, where he soon died (in 326, at approximately 86 years of age).

Miscellaneous

• He also spread Christianity in Georgia and Caucasian Albania.
• He was buried in Etchmiadzin.
• Over the past 500 years, the relics of St. Gregory were kept in the Armenian Church in Naples.
• On November 11, 2000, the relics were transferred to the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and are currently kept in the Yerevan Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator, built in 2001.
• At the site of the prison of St. Gregory is the monastery of Khor Virap, in the Ararat Valley, near the state border with Turkey. The name of the monastery translated from Armenian means “deep pit” (Armenian: Խոր Վիրապ)

Biography history

• The Life of Gregory was translated into Greek at the end of the 6th century
• in the 10th century, Symeon Metaphrastus included it in his Lives of the Saints. The Greek text was translated into Latin, Georgian and Arabic. There is also an Ethiopian edition closely related to the Arabic translation
• the text of the life is contained in the Russian Menaion (Sept. 30)
• canonized by the Roman Catholic Church in 1837 with the participation of Pope Gregory XVI (October 1)

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Bibliography

• Armenians are the people of the creator of foreign civilizations: 1000 famous Armenians in world history / S. Shirinyan.-Er.: Auth. ed., 2014, p.247, ISBN 978-9939-0-1120-2
• Agathangelos History of Armenia (“The History of St. Gregory and the Conversion of Armenia to Christianity”), trans. from ancient arm. K.S. Ter-Davtyan and S.S. Arevshatyan. Yerevan, 2004
• Archbishop Magakia Ormanyan. Armenian Church (note by O.G. Mailyan) Yerevan, 2005
• Vartanyan V.G., Kazarov S.S. History of the Armenian Apostolic Church on the Don (XVIII-XX centuries). Rostov/D. 2004
• The Life and Suffering of the Holy Hieromartyr Gregory, Bishop of Great Armenia, and with him the Thirty-Seven Virgins // Lives of the Saints in Russian, set out according to the guidance of the Four-Minya St. Demetrius of Rostov, with additions from the Prologue. Book I. M., 1902
• Grigor the Illuminator and his sons / Ov. Yusufyan. – Tiflis: type. L.G. Kramarenko, 1886
• Meruzhanyan A. Saints of the Armenian Church. St. Petersburg 2001
• Encyclopedia F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron. St. Petersburg 1890-1907. In 86 volumes
• Noah's Ark. Information and analytical newspaper of the Armenian diaspora of the CIS countries. No. 02 (84) February 2005
• Petrosyan E. Armenian Apostolic Holy Church. 3rd edition corrected and expanded. Krasnodar. 1998

Grigor = Gri + Horus = God Gri Lusavorich - Armenian, Gregorios Foster or Fotistes - Greek, Gregory the Parthian, Grigor Partev. Born about 252 - died about 326 - the Holy Armenian Apostolic Church, as well as the Russian Orthodox Church (where he is known as Gregory of Armenia), and other Orthodox churches, the Roman Catholic and Armenian Catholic Churches, the first, after the persecution of King Trdat, bishop and enlightener of Armenia. He was a member of the Parthian noble family of the Suren-Pakhlavs, which, in turn, was a branch of the royal house of the Arshikids, which was of Parthian origin. Thus, he was a relative of the Armenian monarchs, who were also of Parthian origin. Gregory received the name Aristakes at baptism, and was an apostle of Christ.

In 256 BC. formed, under the leadership of the Arsacids, an independent state, which over time turned into a large empire, including the territories between the Euphrates and Indus, the Caspian and Indian seas. It lasted until 226 AD, when it was replaced by the new Persian Sassanid Empire.

The Parthians were a warlike people, deft riders and excellent archers.

According to some, the Magi (or one of them) who came with gifts to worship the newborn God-Infant (George, John) were from Parthia. In my research this was confirmed, the Magi with the gifts were Aristakes, his wife and son. It is known that when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles (the apostle was Aristakes and his son and Magdalene), among the peoples who were in Jerusalem at this event, the Parthians were first mentioned, followed by the Medes, Elamites, and others.

After the fall of the Arsacids, the Parthians nevertheless retained their privileged status in the Sassanid state. This is evidenced by the frequent mention of the name of the Parthians in rock inscriptions of the Sasanian era.

The book tells that Gregory's father, Apak (Anak), bribed by the Persian king, killed the Armenian king Khosrov (Andronicus-Christ) and paid for it with his life.

The late editor's note, as usually happens: the enemy becomes a hero, and the hero an enemy, the same thing happened with Judas (Aristakes), allegedly a traitor to Jesus, although in reality he was a faithful servant of his king to the last relative and the only adult apostle.

The entire family of Gregory (Aristakes) was exterminated, except for the youngest son, whom his nurse, a Christian, managed to take to her homeland, Caesarea in Cappadocia. There the boy was baptized (baptism was at a more mature age) with the name of Gregory and received a Christian upbringing. Having entered into marriage, he soon separated from his wife: she went to a monastery, and Gregory went to Rome (Rus, Tartaria) and entered the service of Khosrov’s son, Tiridates (Trdat III, - gg.), wanting to make amends for his guilt through diligent service father. This whole story was made up in honor of his separation from his wife. Under King Khosrow is meant Andronicus-Christ, and his son, George (John) Kalita (Tridat). His reign was 1187 - 1227, until 1206 he ruled with his mother Mary Magdalene, and after her dormition he was the sole ruler of Tartary (Rus).

Rice. 86.Statue of St. Gregory in the wall of the Cathedral of St. Peter's in Rome. Inscription on

Armenian and Latin languages

In the center of the picture you can see a young man, the main one among all, the son of Andronicus-Christ George (John) Kalita (Constantine the Great) with a royal crown and a cross.

Gregory (Aristakes - “holy protector”) was the ruler of Armenia, and the first Metropolitan of Moscow, a knight of the spiritual-knightly Order of the Templars, subordinate to the Grand Master, the ruler of Rus' (Tartaria) George (John) Kalita. It is not surprising that the first rulers of the country were also high priests. All representatives of the Komnenos dynasty were Armenians by nationality, according to the official and generally accepted version, so it is not surprising that the Armenian king Trdat refers to the son of Jesus Andronicus-Christ, George (John) Kalita. Trdat is the first Christian king in world history. Gregory the Illuminator (Aristakes) took part in the crusade together with George (John) Kalita, who showed the place of the future Etchmiadzin at the beginning of the 13th century. Then the Armenian army joined the general army of George and fought until victory on April 23, 1204, for loyalty and valor in battle, and probably received the new name Aristakes upon baptism and knighting. Aristakes translates as "Holy Protector". In October 1205, the First Council of Nicaea (Moscow) took place, at which Aristakes I and his delegation from great Armenia were one of the honorary invitees to the Council. Aristakes I (Gregory the Illuminator) lived in Moscow and was in the Moscow Kremlin; the Armenian people, like many peoples of the world, built the Kremlin. One of the churches in Moscow on Red Square, St. Basil's Cathedral (oprichnensky Yarusalim of Ivan the Terrible) was built in honor of the victory over the Kazan Khanate in 1555. According to the assignment, the cathedral was to consist of 8 separate churches, symbolizing the days of the decisive battles for Kazan. The builders of the temple creatively interpreted the task, creating an original and complex composition: between 4 axial pillar-shaped churches there are smaller ones; both are crowned with onion-shaped domes and grouped around the 9th pillar-shaped church rising above them, completed with a tent with a small dome; all churches are united by a common base, a bypass (initially open) gallery and internal vaulted passages. The temple was built of brick, and its foundations, plinth and a number of details were made of white stone

On the day of remembrance of St. Gregory, the enlightener of Armenia - the heavenly patron of Metropolitan Gregory (Chukov) of Leningrad and Novgorod - an article is published that tells about the feat of the holy martyr and about his veneration by Christians. The author draws a parallel between two ministers of the Church. OK. Alexandrova-Chukova also introduces the reader to fragments of the Bishop’s diary, which he kept during the days of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in September 1943.

“Your life will be according to your name...”
Ambrose Optinsky

September 30 (October 13) is the day of remembrance of St. Gregory, enlightener of Greater Armenia. [Grigor Lusavorich; Arm. Գրիգռր Լռւսավռրիչ ] (239-325/6), saint (September 30; in Armenia - 4 times a year), founder and first primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church (from 301 or 314?).

Great Armenia was a mountainous country located between the Roman Empire and Persia, between the Kura River and the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, inhabited by Armenians, named after King Aram. It was ruled by kings from their tribe from the 2nd century. BC until the 5th century according to R.H., when in 387 as a result of wars it was divided between Persia and Rome. It was called so in contrast to Lesser Armenia - the region between the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Galas rivers, which was part of the kingdom of Mithridates of Pontus, and from 70 A.D. - part of the Roman Empire. Great Armenia became the second cradle of the human race, for Noah’s Ark stopped on Mount Ararat (Gen. 8:4).

According to legend, the preaching of the Gospel in Armenia dates back to the apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus; Christianity began to penetrate into Armenia in the 1st century through Syrian cities. Since then, Christian communities existed in Armenia, maintaining close ties with the Church of Antioch, and from the end of the 2nd century also with the Church of Edessa. Armenian Christians were persecuted by the country's rulers from the Parthian Arsacid dynasty. A turning point in the relationship between the Church and the state occurred during the reign of Tiridates (Trdat) III, who was restored to the Armenian throne by Diocletian in 286 after the victorious war of the Romans with Sasanian Iran, the mortal enemy of the Armenian Arsacids, a branch of the Parthian dynasty overthrown in Iran. According to the treaty between Rome and Iran, concluded in 298, Iran recognized the Roman protectorate over Armenia. Tiridates' father Khosrow, who fought for a long time and successfully with the founder of the Sasanian dynasty Ardashir (Artaxerxes), was killed by the Parthian prince Anak, and in revenge for this he himself and his relatives were executed. Only one baby was saved - the youngest son, whom the Christian nurse took to her homeland in Caesarea in Cappadocia. There he was baptized with the name Gregory and received a Christian upbringing. Having entered into marriage, Gregory, soon after the birth of his second son, separated from his wife (who, like him, took a vow of celibacy) and went to Rome, where at that time Tiridates, who had fled Armenia after its capture by the Persians, was staying. He entered his service, wishing with his devotion to the deposed heir to the royal throne to earn forgiveness for the sin of his father. Returning under Diocletian with Tiridates to his native Armenia, Gregory began to preach the teachings of Christ to his fellow tribesmen. But when Gregory confessed to Tiridates that he was the son of Anak, the king ordered him to be tortured and thrown into a ditch, a kind of “zindan”, infested with snakes. Gregory spent 13 (according to other sources 14 or 15) years in this prison. At the site of the martyr’s imprisonment, the Khor Virap monastery was subsequently built.

King Tiridates had his residence in the then capital of Armenia, the city of Vagharshapat (renamed Etchmiadzin in 1945). He brutally persecuted Christians. Fleeing from the persecution of Diocletian, 37 Christian girls fled from Rome to Armenia, whose mentor was Gayane. One of the girls, Hripsimia, was distinguished by her extraordinary beauty and attracted the attention of Tiridates, as Diocletian had done earlier, and he decided to make her his concubine. The girl rejected the advances of Tiridates, and he ordered her to be put to painful execution. Gayane and other holy virgins were martyred along with her. One of them, Nina, fled to Georgia, becoming an educator for this country.

Having committed this terrible crime, the wicked king Tiridates fell into madness: he began to have a mental disorder, he imagined himself as a werewolf. The king's sister, Princess Khosrovidukt, told Tiridates that she had a vision: a man with a radiant face announced to her that the persecution of Christians must be stopped from now on and forever. The princess was convinced that if Gregory was pulled out of the pit, he would be able to cure the king. Tiridates heeded his sister's advice and freed Gregory.

Those who approached the ditch called out loudly, saying: “Gregory, are you alive?” And Gregory answered: “By the grace of my God, I am alive.” Saint Gregory announced to the people that the Lord God kept him alive in the ditch, where the angel of God often visited him, so that he would be able to lead them from the darkness of idolatry to the light of piety. The saint began to instruct them in faith in Christ, calling them to repentance. Seeing the humility of those who came, the saint commanded them to build a large church, which they soon did. Gregory brought the bodies of the blessed martyrs into this church with great honor, placed a holy cross in it and commanded the people to gather there and pray. Then he brought King Tiridates to the bodies of the holy virgins whom he had destroyed, so that he would ask for their prayers before the Lord Jesus Christ. And as soon as the king fulfilled this, the human image was returned to him, and the evil spirits also departed from the governors and warriors who were possessed along with their king.

So Saint Gregory healed his tormentor and baptized him along with the entire royal house, those close to him and many people in the Euphrates River. With the assistance of Tiridates, Christianity spread throughout the country. In all cities and regions of Armenia, pagan temples were overthrown, the priests of which stubbornly resisted, but were defeated. In place of pagan temples, Christian churches and monasteries arose, the lands of which Tiridates III transferred to the servants of the Church for eternal and inalienable possession. These lands were free from all taxes, except for the land tax, which the priests had to pay to the royal treasury. The emerging clergy class was equated to the Azats (the highest military class in Armenia and Iran) and enjoyed the same rights. Thus, the Armenian clergy expanded their possessions at the expense of the lands of abolished pagan temples, the lands of disgraced and destroyed Naharar houses confiscated by the state.

At the monasteries, Saint Gregory founded schools for the training of shepherds and preachers, for whom there was a great need. The Armenians at that time did not yet have their own written language and it was possible to perform divine services and read the Holy Scriptures only in Greek or Syriac, so it was necessary to train shepherds who knew these languages ​​and could express the living word in Armenian.

Saint Gregory spent a lot of time traveling. He baptized those who wanted to convert to Christianity, built new churches and founded new monasteries. Soon he had students and followers.

In 301, Greater Armenia became the first country to adopt Christianity as a state religion.

In 301 (according to other sources in 302 or 314) Saint Gregory received episcopal consecration in Caesarea Cappadocia from the bishop of this city Leontius and headed the Armenian Church. Since then, a procedure has been established according to which each newly elected primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church received ordination from the Archbishop of Caesarea. Gregory founded his department in Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin), where in 301–303. Tiridates the Great and Gregory the Illuminator built a majestic cathedral.

Gregory the Illuminator made sure that the position of bishop became a hereditary privilege for his descendants: during his lifetime, he appointed his son Aristakes as his successor. This hereditary right of the Gregorids was disputed by the descendants of Bishop Albian - the Albianids. In the 4th century. Either the Gregorids or the Albianids ascended the patriarchal throne, depending on the political orientation of the Armenian kings. In the initial period of Christianity, a significant role was played by missionary choreographers, who went to preach the new teaching not only in remote regions of Armenia, but also in neighboring countries. Thus, the grandson of Gregory, the Hieromartyr Grigoris, who preached in the lower reaches of the Kura and Araks, in 338 suffered a martyr’s death “in the land of the Mazkuts.”

Towards the end of his life, Gregory, having transferred the department to his son, became a hermit in a mountain cave. The relics of Saint Gregory, discovered by local shepherds, spread throughout the Christian world. The main shrine - the right hand of St. Gregory - has been kept in Etchmiadzin since 2000 and is the official symbol of the spiritual power of the Supreme Hierarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

“The long-suffering shepherd”, “Praise to Armenia”, Hieromartyr Gregory “cultivated a barren field”, sowed “verbal seeds” of piety in the hearts of all Armenians, dispersed the “darkness of idolatry”, for which he received the name “Illuminator of Armenia”.

Basic information about the life of the saint is collected in the so-called. cycle of the Life of Gregory the Illuminator. The Armenian text was preserved as part of the “History of Armenia,” the author of which is considered to be the secretary of King Tiridates III the Great (287–330) Agathangel. This book tells about the journey of King Tiridates and Gregory the Illuminator to Rome to see Emperor Constantine, and about the Council of Nicaea. They were the “two delegates from Armenia” at the first Ecumenical Council.

In addition to the life, the book of Agafangel contains a collection of 23 sermons attributed to St. Gregory the Illuminator, which is why this book is also called the “Book of Gregoris” or “Teaching of the Illuminator” (Armenian “Vardapetutyun”).

Agafangel's "History of Armenia" was translated into Greek. According to recent research, the translation of the Greek, Syriac and Arabic versions of the Life of Gregory the Illuminator dates back to the 6th - early 7th centuries. In the 5th century The cult of the saint was not yet pan-Armenian, much less pan-Caucasian, but already in the 6th century. he is declared a pan-Caucasian educator, and local missionaries turn into his associates. The official concept of the three Churches - Armenian, Georgian and Albanian - is presented in the Greek and Arabic versions of the Life of St. Gregory, and the saint is called not only a pan-Armenian educator, but also a disseminator of a new religion within the entire Caucasian region. His equal veneration in Armenia and Georgia is evidenced by the correspondence of the Georgian Catholicos Kirion I with the Armenian spiritual and temporal Lords, dating back to 604–609, preserved in the “Book of Epistles” and “History” of Ukhtanes, where it is reported that Saint George planted the “holy and righteous faith in the Caucasus regions." Vrtanes Kertog also writes about him as an educator of Armenia and Georgia. The establishment of the Christian faith by Gregory the Illuminator is also confirmed by the Georgian Catholicos (Book of Epistles. Tiflis, 1901, pp. 132, 136, 138, 169). His opponent, the Armenian Catholicos Abraham I Albatanetsi, points out that in Armenia and Georgia “general worship of God was first introduced by the blessed St. Gregory, and then Mashtots” (Ibid. p. 180). In the 3rd quarter of the 9th century. Georgian Catholicos Arseny Saparsky accused the Armenian Monophysites of moving away from the teachings of St. Gregory: “... and a big dispute began between Somkhiti and Kartli. The Georgians said: St. Gregory of Greece gave us faith, you left him to St. confession and submitted to the Syrian Abdisho and the rest of the evil heretics” (Muradyan. 1982.P.18). In the Syriac text of the Life, Gregory the Illuminator is presented as the successor of the work of the Apostle Thaddeus, who preached Christianity in Syria.

The reworking of the Life of Gregory the Illuminator into the Armenian version occurred no earlier than the beginning of the schism between the Armenian and Georgian Churches, which finally took shape after the Council of Manazkert in 726. Its goal was to create a majestic history of the emergence of the Armenian Apostolic Church. In this edition there is no longer room for the idea of ​​Gregory the Illuminator converting neighboring peoples to Christianity, and his preaching is limited to only 15 regions of Greater Armenia. In the Life of Gregory the Illuminator appears as a “wonderful man”, famous for his long-term martyrdom, asceticism and, finally, awarded a vision affirming the connection of the Armenian Apostolic Church with the Only Begotten Son of God himself - Christ.

In Byzantium, the history of the conversion of Armenia by Gregory the Illuminator became known no later than the 5th century, when the Greek historian Sozomen mentions the miracle of the baptism of the Armenian king Trdat, which occurred in his house. In the 8th century the celebration in honor of St. Gregory was included in the Greek church calendar from the 9th century. his feast day is marked in the Greek calendar, carved on the marble tablets of the Church of San Giovanni in Naples.

On September 28, St. Martyrs Hripsimia and Gaiania, and on September 30, December 2 and 3 – “St. Gregory of Armenia."

The veneration of Gregory the Illuminator in Byzantium and the countries of its cultural area is associated with the name of the Patriarch of Constantinople, St. Photius (858–867, 877–886), who sought to consolidate Eastern Christians in the face of the West. Popular among Armenians, Georgians, Syrians and Copts, the saint became a unifying figure, and it was at this time that an image of St. Sophia appeared on the walls of the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Constantinople. Gregory of Armenia.

The translation of the lengthy Life of Gregory the Illuminator, Hripsimia and Gaiania from Greek into Slavic was made no later than the 12th century. The life was included in Serbian celebrations of the 14th–15th centuries. There is also a known translation of a shorter Life into “simple language”, completed no later than 1669 and represented by a number of Ukrainian-Belarusian copies of the 17th century. and in the 1st half of the 14th century. among the southern Slavs as part of the Stishnoy Prologue. The translation of the service to Gregory the Illuminator into Slavic was done no later than the 60s. XI century, represented already by Novgorod lists of the late XI-XII centuries. The new translation was made in the 14th century. Bulgarian scribes on Mount Athos as part of the service Menaion according to the Jerusalem Rule.

Cases of churches dedicated to Gregory the Illuminator in Rus' are few and are associated with large cities and monasteries. In 1535, in the name of Gregory the Illuminator, a pillar-shaped (“like the bells”) church in the Novgorod Spaso-Preobrazhensky Khutynsky Monastery was consecrated; in 1561, one of the 8 altar altars of the Pokrovsky Cathedral on the Moat of the Cathedral (St. Basil’s Cathedral) in Moscow was dedicated to the saint. .

In the Greek and Arabic versions of the Life, Gregory the Illuminator is credited with the baptism of the kings of Georgia and Caucasian Albania and the establishment of church organizations in these countries.

Until the middle of the 5th century, the Armenian Apostolic Church represented one of the branches of a relatively unified Christian Church. Its isolation began after the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451), in which the AAC did not participate due to the bloody war between Christian Armenia and Zoroastrian Persia that was ongoing at that time. Another reason for not accepting the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon was the desire to strengthen its independence from Byzantium. Armenian theologians, not recognizing the Council of Chalcedon as Ecumenical, considered it local, which means that its definitions are not generally binding for the Ecumenical Church. In 506, at the First Council of Dvina, the AAC rejected the decision of the Council of Chalcedon and thereby gained independence. This decision was confirmed at the Second Dvina Council in 554.

The Armenian Apostolic Church actually separated from both the Eastern and Western Churches and belongs to the family of the so-called non-Chalcedonian or Ancient Eastern Churches, which also include the Coptic (Egyptian), Syrian (Jacobite), Ethiopian (Abyssinian) and Malankara (India).

In Russia, on the basis of the Regulations of 1836, it was called Armenian-Gregorian - after the name of the first Armenian Patriarch Gregory the Illuminator, but this name is not used by the Armenian Apostolic Church itself.

“The Armenian Church has always remained faithful to Orthodoxy. She is perceived by the Russian Church as an Orthodox Sister Church, because she shares the common faith and dogmas of the Fathers of the Church,” said Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad more than 20 years ago during a meeting with the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church of the USA.

On March 16, 2010, during the Primate’s visit to Armenia, in his greeting to Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' said:

“Despite the fact that our Churches, for historical reasons, do not have Eucharistic communion, we are clearly aware of our closeness to each other. We find the reason for this in the adherence of the Russian Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Churches to the ancient church Tradition. On its basis, over the centuries, traditional values ​​have been formed, equally characteristic of the East Slavic and Armenian cultures. It is loyalty to the Christian tradition and its moral ideals that is the connecting thread for us, the guarantee of our cooperation and friendship. We participate together in the work of international Christian organizations, various interreligious forums, and conduct a fruitful bilateral dialogue. We are glad that Armenian students study at the theological academies of the Russian Orthodox Church, which allows them to get acquainted with the faith, history, culture and traditions of the peoples inhabiting the space of historical Rus'.

Today here, in the Cathedral of the Holy Mother See of Etchmiadzin, founded by St. Gregory, where his holy right hand is enshrined, I again feel the need to develop and deepen mutual ties so that our joint witness to the world will be effective - a world suffering from divisions, enmity and injustice. The Holy Apostle Paul, instructing his disciple Timothy, says: “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called, and have made a good confession before many witnesses” (1 Tim. 6:12). Our duty is also to jointly testify to the Tradition of the ancient Church to those Christian communities that have taken the path of liberalization of moral teaching, accompanied by a revision of basic norms.”

Hieromartyr Gregory, enlightener of Great Armenia, born in 257. He came from the line of the Parthian kings Arsacids. The father of Saint Gregory, Anak, seeking the Armenian throne, killed his relative, King Kursar, for which the entire family of Anak was destroyed. Gregory was saved by a certain relative: he took the baby from Armenia to Caesarea in Cappadocia and raised him in the Christian faith. Having matured, Gregory married and had two sons, but soon became a widower. Gregory raised his sons in piety. One of them, Orphan, later became a priest, and the second, Arostan, accepted monasticism and went into the desert. To atone for the sin of his father, who killed the father of Trdat III, Gregory joined the latter’s retinue and was his faithful servant. Tsarevich Trdat loved Gregory as a friend, but did not tolerate his Christian religion. Upon his accession to the Armenian throne, he began to force Saint Gregory to renounce Christ. The saint's inflexibility embittered Trdat, and he betrayed his faithful servant to cruel torment: the sufferer was hung upside down with a stone around his neck, smoked for several days with stinking smoke, beaten, mocked, and forced to walk in iron boots with nails. During these sufferings, Saint Gregory sang psalms. In prison, the Lord healed all his wounds. When Gregory again appeared before the king unharmed and joyful, he was amazed and ordered the torture to be repeated. Saint Gregory endured them without hesitation, with the same determination and dignity. Then they doused him with hot tin and threw him into a ditch filled with poisonous reptiles (nowadays, in the place of the saint’s suffering there is the Khor-Virap monastery - ancient Armenian “deep pit”). The Lord protected His chosen one: the poisonous creatures did not harm him. A certain pious woman fed him with bread, secretly lowering him into the ditch. The Holy Angel, descending to the martyr, encouraged his strength and strengthened his spirit. So 13 years passed. During this time, King Trdat committed another atrocity: he tortured the holy virgin Hripsimia, the elder abbess Gaiania, and with them 35 other virgins from one of the Asia Minor nunneries.

Saint Hripsimia, together with her abbess and sisters, fled to Armenia, not wanting to marry Emperor Diocletian (284 - 305), who was seduced by her beauty. Diocletian informed the Armenian king Trdat about this and suggested that he either send Hripsimia back or take her as his wife. The king's servants found those who had fled and began to persuade Ripsimia to submit to the will of the king. The saint answered that she, like all the sisters of the monastery, was betrothed to the Heavenly Bridegroom and could not enter into marriage. Then a voice came from heaven: “Be of good courage and do not be afraid, for I am with you.” The messengers left in fear. Trdat submitted the maiden to the most severe tortures, during which she was deprived of her tongue, her womb was cut open, she was blinded and killed, cutting her body into pieces. Abbess Gaiania, for encouraging Hripsimia to courageously endure torture for Christ, together with two nun sisters, was handed over to the same torment, after which they were beheaded. The remaining 33 sisters were hacked to pieces with swords and their bodies were thrown to be devoured by wild beasts. The wrath of God struck King Trdat, as well as those of his associates and soldiers who participated in the torture of the holy virgins. Possessed by demons, they became like wild boars (as Nebuchadnezzar once did. Dan. 4:30), rushed through the forests, tore their clothes and gnawed their own bodies. After some time, Trdat’s sister Kusarodukhta was told in a dream: “If Gregory is not brought out of the ditch, King Trdat will not be healed.” Then the king’s entourage approached the ditch and asked: “Gregory, are you alive?” Gregory answered: “By the grace of my God I am alive.” Then they brought out the holy martyr, overgrown, blackened and very withered. But he was still strong in spirit.

The saint ordered to collect the remains of the martyred virgins; They were buried with honor, and a church was built at the burial site. Saint Gregory brought the demon-possessed king to this church and ordered him to pray to the holy martyrs. Trdat was healed, repenting of his crimes against God, and received holy Baptism with his entire household. Following the example of the king, the entire Armenian people were baptized. Through the efforts of Saint Gregory, the Etchmiadzin Cathedral was erected in 301 (which means “the Only Begotten descended” (that is, Jesus Christ), who, according to legend, personally showed Gregory the place to build the temple), in honor of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. In 305, Saint Gregory went to Caesarea in Cappadocia and there he was installed bishop of Armenia by Archbishop Leontius. For his apostolic works he received the title of Enlightener of Armenia. Saint Gregory also converted many people from neighboring countries - Persia and Assyria - to Christ. Having established the Armenian Church, Saint Gregory called his son, Arostan the desert dweller, to the episcopal service, and he himself retired into the desert. Saint Arostan in 325 was a participant in the First Ecumenical Council, which condemned the heresy of Arius. Saint Gregory, having retired into the desert, reposed in the year 335. The right hand and part of his holy relics now rest in the treasury of the Etchmiadzin Cathedral in Armenia. According to the tradition of the Armenian Apostolic Church, which continues to this day, with this right hand the Supreme Catholicos-Patriarch of all Armenians blesses the holy chrism during the preparation of Chrism.

I.K. Aivazovsky Baptism of the Armenian people. Grigor the Illuminator (IV century), 1892 (Feodosia Art Gallery named after I.K. Aivazovsky)

Khor Virap Monastery built over the place of imprisonment of St. Gregory the Illuminator, the founder of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Saint Gregory the Illuminator (Armenian: Գրիգոր Լուսավորիչ, Grigor Lusavorich, Greek: Γρηγόριος Φωστήρ or Φωτιστής, Gregorios Foster or Fotistes; Gregory of Parfia nin, Grigor Partev; (c. 252 - 326) - enlightener of Armenia and the first Catholicos of all Armenians, holy Armenian Apostolic Church , as well as the Russian Orthodox (where he is known as the Hieromartyr Gregory, the Enlightener of Armenia) and other Orthodox Churches, the Roman Catholic and Armenian Catholic Churches. He was the founder of the Gregory family, which existed until the middle of the 5th century. The origin of this family is traditionally attributed to the noble Parthian dynasty of the Suren-Pakhlavs , which was a branch of the royal house of the Arsacids. The life of St. Gregory is described by Agafangel, a writer of the 4th century, the legendary author of the history of the conversion of Armenia to Christianity. In addition to the life, the book of Agathangel contains a collection of 23 sermons attributed to St. Gregory the Illuminator, why this book is also called the “Book Grigoris" or "Teachings of the Enlightener" (Armenian "Vardapetutyun"). The book tells that Gregory's father, the Parthian Apak (Anak), bribed by the Persian king, killed the Armenian king Khosrow and paid for it with his life; his entire family was exterminated, except for his youngest son, whom his nurse, a Christian, managed to take to her homeland, Caesarea in Cappadocia. There the boy was baptized with the name of Gregory and received a Christian upbringing. Having entered into marriage, he soon separated from his wife: she went to a monastery, and Gregory went to Rome and entered the service of Khosrow’s son, Tiridates (Trdat III), wanting to make amends for his father’s guilt through diligent service. Arriving in Armenia in 287, accompanied by Roman legions, Trdat regained his father's throne. For professing Christianity, Trdat ordered Gregory to be thrown into the casemates or well of Artashat (Artaxatas), where he was imprisoned for about 15 years, supported by a pious woman. Meanwhile, Tiridates fell into madness, but was healed by Gregory, after which in 301 he was baptized and proclaimed Christianity the state religion in Armenia. In 302, Gregory was ordained bishop by Bishop Leontius of Cappadocia in Caesarea, after which he built a temple in the city of Vagharshapat, the capital of King Trdat III. The temple was named Etchmiadzin, which translated means “the Only Begotten came down” (that is, Jesus Christ) - who, according to legend, personally showed Gregory the place to build the temple. In 325, Gregory was invited to the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, but did not have the opportunity to go himself and sent his son Aristakes there, who, together with another envoy named Akritis, brought the Nicene decrees to Armenia. In 325, Gregory transferred the department to his son, and he himself retired into solitude, where he soon died (in 326) and was buried in Etchmiadzin. The Armenian archbishopric remained in the family of Gregory for a long time. For almost a thousand years, the grave of St. Gregory served as a place of worship. Over the past 500 years, the relics of St. Gregory were kept in the Armenian church in Naples, and on November 11, 2000 they were transferred to the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and are currently kept in the Yerevan Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator, built in 2001. On the site of the prison of St. Gregory is the Khor Virap monastery, in the Ararat Valley, near the state border with Turkey. The name of the monastery translated from Armenian means “deep hole” (Armenian: Խոր Վիրապ). The Life of Gregory was translated into Greek around the end of the 6th century. In the 10th century, Symeon Metaphrastus included it in his Lives of the Saints. The Greek text was translated into Latin, Georgian and Arabic. There is also an Ethiopian edition, closely related to the Arabic translation. The text of the life is also contained in the Russian Menaion (Sept. 30). Canonized by the Roman Catholic Church in 1837 with the participation of Pope Gregory XVI; memory of October 1st Source: ru.wikipedia.org

Life of St. Gregory the Illuminator, St. Hripsime and St. Gayane and with them thirty-seven maidens

Saint Gregory the Illuminator of Great Armenia came from noble and noble parents who were in the darkness of unbelief. His father, named Anak, from the Parthian tribe, was a relative of the Persian king Artaban and his brother, the Armenian king Kursar. Anak moved to Armenia under the following circumstances. When the Persian kingdom fell under the rule of the Parthians and the Parthian Artabanus became the Persian king, the Persians were burdened by the fact that they were under foreign rule. At this time, one of the most noble nobles of the Persians was Artasir, who, having previously agreed with his friends and like-minded people, instigated an uprising against King Artabanus, killed him, and himself reigned on the throne of the Persian kings. When the Armenian king Kursar heard about the murder of his brother Artaban, he deeply grieved for him and, having gathered the entire Armenian army, went to war against the Persians, avenging the shedding of his brother’s blood. For ten years Persia was attacked by the Armenians and suffered great harm from them. Being in great sadness and bewilderment, Artasir consulted with his nobles on how to repel the attack of enemies, and vowed to make the one who would kill the Kursar co-ruler. Gregory's father Anak was also present at the meeting with the king, who promised to defeat the Kursar without war and through some cunning plan to kill him. To this Artasir said to him: “If you fulfill your promise, then I will place a royal crown on your head and you will be a ruler with me, but the Parthian kingdom will remain with you and your family.” Having thus agreed and confirmed the conditions among themselves, they parted. To carry out his plan, Anak invited his brother to help him. They set out from Persia with all their property, with their wives and children, and under the pretext that they were exiles who had escaped the wrath of Artasir, they came to Armenia to the Armenian king as their relative. He welcomed them cordially and, giving them permission to settle on his land, made them his close advisers. He entrusted all his plans and even himself to Anak, whom he appointed as the first adviser in his royal council. Anak flatteringly crept into the king's heart, plotting in his own heart how to kill the king, and looked for an opportunity to do so. Once, when the king happened to be on Mount Ararat, Anak and his brother expressed a desire for the king to talk to them alone. “We have,” said the brothers, “to secretly tell you some beneficial and useful advice.” And so they entered the king when he was alone, inflicted a mortal blow on him with a sword, then, leaving, mounted horses prepared in advance and rushed off, wanting to head to Persia. After a short time, the bed-riders entered the royal chambers and found the king there on the floor, floating in blood, and barely alive. The travelers were struck with great fear, and they reported everything that had happened and seen to all the governors and nobles. They hurried in the footsteps of the killers, overtook them at one river, killed them and drowned them in the water. The wounded King Kursar, dying, ordered the death of the entire family of Anak and his brother with their wives and children, which was carried out. At the time when the Anak clan was being exterminated, one of his relatives managed to kidnap the two Anak sons who were still in swaddling clothes, Saint Gregory and his brother, and, hiding them in his home, raised them. Meanwhile, a great rebellion occurred in Armenia; Having heard about this, the Persian king Artasir came with his army to Armenia, conquered the Armenian kingdom and brought it under his rule. After the Armenian king Kursar, there was left a young child named Tiridates, whom Artasir spared and sent to the Roman country, where he, having matured and become very strong, became a warrior. And the young sons of Anak, who escaped murder, were taken one to Persia, and the other, named Gregory, about whom we will talk, was sent to the Roman Empire. Having come of age, he lived in Caesarea in Cappadocia, here he learned faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and remained a good and faithful servant of the Lord. He entered into marriage there and gave birth to two sons, Orphan and Arostan, whom he dedicated from the day of his birth to serving the Lord. Upon reaching adulthood, Orphan was awarded the priesthood, and Arostan became a desert dweller. Soon after the birth of the two named sons, Gregory's wife died, and from that time on, blessed Gregory began to serve God even more diligently, walking immaculately in all the commandments and instructions of the Lord. At that time, Tiridates, while serving in the Roman army, received some honorary position, since he came from a royal family. Hearing about Tiridates, Saint Gregory came to him, as if completely unaware that his father Anak had killed Kursar, the father of Tiridates. Keeping the secret of the Kursar's murder, he became a faithful servant of Tiridates, atoning for and compensating for the sin of his father with his faithful service to the Cursar's son. Seeing Gregory's diligent service, Tiridates fell in love with him; but then, when he found out that Gregory was a Christian, he became angry with him and reviled him. Gregory, despite the unjust anger of his master, continued to maintain his immaculate faith in Christ God. In those days, the Goths invaded the countries that belonged to the Romans, and the then Roman king had to go to war against the Goths. When the Roman and Gothic armies came close and stood against each other, the Gothic prince began to challenge the Roman king to single combat. The latter, afraid to go out himself to the challenge of the Gothic prince, began to look in his place for a warrior who could fight the Gothic prince; The king found such a warrior in the person of the brave Tiridates, whom he dressed in royal weapons and, passing off as the king, set him up against the Gothic prince. Having entered into single combat with the latter, Tiridates overcame him without a sword, captured him alive and brought him to the Roman king. This resulted in victory over the entire Gothic army. For this feat, the Roman king elevated Tiridates to the throne of his father, made him king of Armenia and made peace for him between the Armenians and Persians. Together with him, as his faithful servant, Blessed Gregory also retired to Armenia. When King Tiridates made sacrifices to idols, and most of all to the goddess Artemis, for whom he had the greatest zeal, he often and diligently asked Gregory to make the latter sacrifice to idols with him. Gregory refused and confessed that there is no God in heaven or on earth except Christ. Hearing these words, Tiridates ordered Gregory to be seriously tormented. First of all, they put a piece of wood between his teeth, forcing his lips wide open so that they could not close to utter a word. Then, tying a large piece of rock salt to his neck (in Armenia, such stones are dug out of the ground), they hung him upside down. The saint patiently hung in this position for seven days; on the eighth day, they began to mercilessly beat the hanged man from above with sticks, and then for another seven days they starved him, hanging upside down, with smoke from the dung that was lit under him. He, hanging, glorified the name of Jesus Christ and, after the tree was taken out of his mouth, he taught the people who stood and looked at his torment to believe in the One true God. Seeing that the saint remained unshakably in faith and bravely endured suffering, they squeezed his legs with boards, tied them tightly with ropes, and hammered iron nails into his heels and soles, ordering him to walk. So he walked, singing the psalm: “By the word of Your mouth I have kept myself from the ways of the oppressor” (Ps. 16:4). And again: “He who bears seeds weeping will return with joy, bearing his sheaves” (Ps. 125:6). The torturer ordered to bend the saint’s head with special tools, then, pouring salt and sulfur into his nostrils and pouring vinegar, tie his head with a bag filled with soot and ash. The saint remained in this position for six days. Then they hung him upside down again and forcibly poured water into his mouth, mocking the saint, for there was no shame in those who were filled with all sorts of shameless uncleanness. After such torment, the king again began to seduce the sufferer with crafty words into idolatry; when the saint did not bow to his promises, the torturers hung him again and whittled his ribs with iron claws. Having thus ulcerated the entire body of the saint, they dragged him naked on the ground covered with sharp iron nails. The martyr endured all these sufferings and was finally thrown into prison, but there, by the power of Christ, he remained unharmed. The next day, Saint Gregory was taken out of prison and appeared before the king with a cheerful face, not having a single wound on his body. Seeing all this, the king was surprised, but still harboring hope that Gregory would fulfill his will, he began to talk peacefully with him in order to thereby turn him to his wickedness. When Saint Gregory did not obey the flattering speeches, the king ordered him to be put in iron boots, put in stocks and guarded for three days. After three days, he called the saint to him and said to him: “You trust in your God in vain, because you have no help from him.” Gregory answered: “Mad king, you are preparing torment for yourself, but I, trusting in my God, will not faint. I will not spare my flesh for his sake, because just as the outer man decays, in the same way the inner man is renewed.” After this, the tormentor ordered to melt tin in a cauldron and pour it over the saint’s entire body, but he, enduring all this, incessantly confessed Christ. While Tiridates was plotting how to defeat the unyielding heart of Gregory, someone from the crowd said to him: “Do not kill this man, king, this is the son of Anak, who killed your father and delivered the Armenian kingdom into captivity to the Persians.” Hearing these words, the king was inflamed with greater hatred for the blood of his father and ordered Gregory to be tied hand and foot and thrown into a deep ditch in the city of Artaxata. This ditch was scary to everyone even at the mere thought of it. Excavated for those condemned to death by cruel death, it was filled with swamp mud, snakes, scorpions and various kinds of poisonous reptiles. Thrown into this ditch, Saint Gregory remained there for fourteen years, remaining unharmed by the reptiles. According to Divine providence for him, one widow threw him a loaf of bread every day, with which he supported his life. Thinking that Gregory had long since died, Tiridates stopped even remembering him. After this, the king fought with the Persians, conquered their countries as far as Syria and returned home with a brilliant victory and glory. In those days, the Roman Emperor Diocletian sent messengers throughout his state to look for the most beautiful maiden of all as his wife. Such a person was found in the person of the Christian Hripsimia, who, having entrusted her virginity to Christ, lived in fasting and prayer in a nunnery under the supervision of Abbess Gaiania. The ambassadors ordered an image of Hripsimia to be painted, which was sent to the king. The king liked the image of Hripsimia extremely because of its beauty; inflamed by her, he sent her an offer to become his wife. Having received the proposal, Hripsimia cried out in her heart to Christ: “My bridegroom Christ! I will not depart from You and will not blaspheme my holy virginity.” She consulted with the sisters of the monastery and with her abbess Gaiania, and so, having gathered, she and all the sisters fled secretly from the monastery. After untold hardships along the way, enduring hunger and countless difficulties, they came to Armenia and settled near the city of Ararat. Here they began to live in the vineyards, and the strongest of them went to work in the city, where they obtained the necessary food for themselves and the other sisters. All the virgins who agreed to suffer in this way and endure hardships and sorrows during their travels in order to preserve the purity of their virginity were thirty-seven. Having received notification that Hripsimia and the other sisters of the monastery had fled to Armenia, Diocletian sent the following notice to the Armenian king Tiridates, with whom he was on great friendship: “Some of the Christians seduced Hripsimia, whom I wanted to make my wife, and now she prefers to wander with shame in foreign countries, rather than being my wife. Find her and send her to us, or, if you wish, take her as your wife.” Then Tiridates gave the order to look everywhere for Hripsimia and, having learned where she was, ordered that guards be placed around her whereabouts to prevent her escape. Having received news from people who had seen Hripsimia that the latter was of amazing beauty, he was inflamed with a fiery desire to take possession of her and sent to her all the jewelry befitting the royal dignity, so that, dressed in them, she would be brought to him. On the advice of Abbess Gaiania, under whose guidance she was raised from her youth, Hripsimia rejected all the decorations sent by Tiridates and did not want to go to him. Abbess Gaiania herself told those sent from the king: “All these girls are already betrothed to the Heavenly King, and it is impossible for any of them to enter into an earthly marriage.” After these words, a deafening thunder suddenly struck and a heavenly voice was heard saying to the virgins: “Be bold and do not be afraid, for I am with you.” The sent soldiers were so frightened by the blows of this thunder that they fell prostrate to the ground, and some, falling from their horses, died, trampled under their feet. Those sent with nothing returned to the king in terrible horror and retold him everything that had happened. Filled with furious anger, the king then sent one of the princes with a large military detachment to cut down all the maidens with swords and bring Hripsimia by force. When the warriors with drawn swords attacked the maidens, Hripsimia said to the prince: “Do not destroy these maidens, lead me to your king.” And the soldiers took her and led her away, without causing any harm to the other virgins, who disappeared after the soldiers left. During the journey, Ripsimiya called on her Bridegroom-Christ for help and asked him: “Deliver my soul from the sword and my lonely dog ​​from the dogs” (Ps. 21:21). When Ripsimiya was brought into the royal bedchamber, she lifted up her bodily and spiritual eyes to grief and earnestly prayed with tears to God that He would preserve her virginity with His omnipotent hand. At the same time, she recalled His wonderful and merciful help, which He had from ancient times shown to people in distress: how He saved the Israelites from the hand of Pharaoh and from drowning (Exod. ch. 14 and 15), preserved Jonah unharmed in the belly of the whale (Jonah ch. 1), kept three youths in the oven from the fire (Dan. ch. 3) and delivered blessed Susanna from the adulterous elders (Dan. ch. 13). And she prayed to God that she herself would be saved in the same way from Tiridates’ violence. At this time, the king entered Hripsimia and, seeing her extraordinary beauty, was greatly inflamed by her. Moved by an evil spirit and bodily lust, he approached her and, hugging her, tried to do violence to her; She, strengthened by the power of Christ, firmly resisted him. The king fought with her for a long time, but could not cause her any harm. For this holy virgin, with the help of God, turned out to be stronger than the glorious and strong warrior Tiridates. And so the one who had once defeated the Gothic prince without a sword and defeated the Persians, was now unable to defeat the Virgin of Christ, because she, like the first martyr Thekla, was given bodily strength from above. Having achieved nothing, the king left the bedchamber and ordered to send for Gaiania, knowing that she was the mentor of Hripsimia. She was soon found and brought to the king, who began to ask Gaiania to convince Hripsimia to fulfill his will. Gaiania, having come to her, began to speak to her in Latin, so that her words could not be understood by the Armenians who were there. She told Hripsimia not at all what was pleasing to the king, but what was useful for her maiden purity. She diligently taught Hripsimia and instructed her to observe her virginity betrothed to Christ to the end, so that she would remember the love of her Bridegroom and the crown prepared for her virginity; so that she would be afraid of the Last Judgment and Gehenna, which will devour those who do not keep their vows. “It is better for you, Virgin of Christ,” said Gaiania, “to die here temporarily than there eternally. Don’t you know what your most beautiful Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, says in the Gospel: “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28). Never agree to commit sin, even if the wicked king decides to kill you. This will be, before your pure and incorruptible Betrothed, the best praise for your virginity.” Some of those present there, who knew Latin, understood what Gaiania Hripsimia was saying, and told other royal servants about it. Hearing this, the latter began to hit Gaiania in the mouth with a stone so that her teeth were knocked out, insisting that she say what the king commanded. When Gaiania did not stop teaching Hripsimia the fear of the Lord, she was taken away from there. Having worked a lot in the fight against Hripsimia and seeing that nothing could be achieved from her, the king began to shake and roll on the ground like one possessed. Meanwhile, Hripsimia ran away at nightfall, unnoticed by anyone, out of the city. Having met the sisters who labored with her, she told them about her victory over the enemy and that she remained undefiled. Hearing this, everyone praised and thanked God, who had not betrayed His bride to shame; and all that night they sang, praying to their Bridegroom Christ. The next morning the wicked seized Hripsimia and put her to a painful death. First of all, they cut out her tongue, then, having exposed her, they tied her arms and legs to four posts and burned her with candles. After this, they tore open her womb with a sharp stone, so that all her insides fell out. Finally they gouged out her eyes and cut her whole body into pieces. Thus, through bitter death, the holy virgin departed to her sweet Bridegroom - Christ. After this, they seized the rest of the girls, sisters and companions of Saint Hripsimia, numbering thirty-three, and killed them with swords, and their bodies were thrown to be devoured by wild beasts. Abbess Gaiania, with two other virgins who were with her, was killed by the most cruel death. First of all, they drilled into their legs, hung them upside down and skinned them alive; then, cutting through the back of their necks, they pulled out and cut out their tongues; then they cut their belly with a sharp stone, pulled out their entrails and cut off the heads of the martyrs. So they went to their Betrothed - Christ. Tiridates, being like a madman, only on the sixth day after the death of these virgins came to his senses and went hunting. According to the miraculous and marvelous Divine vision, during this journey he was struck by such a cruel execution that in a state of madness he lost not only his mind, but even the very semblance of a human being, becoming in appearance like a wild boar, like Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, once did (Dan. 4:30). And not only the king himself, but also all the military leaders, soldiers and in general those who approved of the torment of the holy virgins, became possessed and ran through the fields and oak groves, tearing their clothes and devouring their own bodies. So divine wrath was not slow to punish them for innocent blood, and they received no help from anyone, for who can resist the wrath of God? But the merciful God, who “is not completely angry and is not forever indignant” (Ps. 103:9), often punishes people for their own benefit, in order to correct the human heart for the better. And the Lord, in His mercy, had mercy on them in the following way: a certain terrible man appeared in a dream in great glory to the royal sister, Kusaroducta, and said to her: “Tiridat will not survive unless Gregory is brought out of the ditch.” Having woken up, Kusaroducta told her close associates the vision, and this dream seemed strange to everyone, for who could have expected that Gregory, thrown into a swamp full of all sorts of reptiles, would remain alive after fourteen difficult years spent there! However, they approached the ditch and called out loudly, saying: “Gregory, are you alive?” And Gregory answered: “By the grace of my God I am alive.” And he, pale and overgrown with hair and nails, emaciated and blackened from the swamp mud and extreme hardships, was led out of the ditch. They washed the saint, dressed him in new clothes and, having strengthened him with food, led him to the king, who had the appearance of a boar. Everyone came out to Saint Gregory with great respect, bowed, fell at his feet and prayed to him to ask his God for the healing of the king, the military leaders and his entire army. Blessed Gregory first of all asked them about the bodies of the murdered holy virgins, since they lay unburied for ten days. Then he collected the scattered bodies of the holy virgins and, mourning the inhuman cruelty of the wicked tormentors, buried them in a dignified manner. After this, he began to teach the tormentors so that they would turn away from idols and believe in the One God and His Son Jesus Christ, hoping for his mercy and grace. Saint Gregory told them that the Lord God kept him alive in the ditch, where the angel of God often visited him, so that he would be able to lead them from the darkness of idolatry to the light of piety; Thus, the saint instructed them in faith in Christ, imposing repentance on them. Seeing their humility, the saint commanded them to build a large church, which they did in a short time. Gregory brought the bodies of the blessed martyrs into this church with great honor, placed a holy cross in it and commanded the people to gather there and pray. Then he brought King Tiridates to the bodies of the holy virgins whom he had destroyed, so that he would ask for their prayers before the Lord Jesus Christ. And as soon as the king fulfilled this, the human image was returned to him, and the evil spirits were driven away from the raging commanders and warriors. Soon all of Armenia turned to Christ, the people destroyed idolatrous temples and built churches for God in their place. The king openly confessed his sins and his cruelty before everyone, proclaiming the execution of God and the grace shown to him. After this, he became the leader and initiator of every good deed. He sent Saint Gregory to Caesarea in Cappadocia to Archbishop Leontius so that he would ordain him bishop. Returning from Caesarea after the ordination of St. Gregory took with him from there many presbyters whom he considered most worthy. He baptized the king, the governor, the entire army and the rest of the people, starting with the courtiers and ending with the very last villager. Thus, Saint Gregory led countless people to the confession of the true God, building temples of God and making a bloodless sacrifice in them. Moving from city to city, he ordained priests, established schools and appointed teachers in them, in a word, did everything that was related to the benefits and needs of the church and was necessary for serving God; the king distributed rich estates to the churches. Saint Gregory converted not only Armenians to Christ, but also residents of other countries, such as the Persians, Assyrians and Medes. He established many monasteries in which the work of evangelical preaching flourished successfully. Having thus arranged everything, Saint Gregory withdrew into the desert, where, pleasing God, he ended his earthly life. King Tiridates lived in such deeds of virtue and abstinence that he was equal in this with the monks. Instead of Saint Gregory, his son Arostan, a man distinguished by high virtue, was taken to Armenia; From his youth he led a monastic life and in Cappadocia he was ordained a priest for the establishment of churches of God in Armenia. The king sent him to the Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, assembled to denounce the Arian heresy, where he was present among three hundred and eighteen holy fathers. So Armenia believed in Christ and served God, for a long time flourishing with all the virtues and humbly in Christ Jesus our Lord, praising God, to whom be glory, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.