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Saint Gregory the Illuminator Գրիգոր Լուսաւորիչ Γρηγόριος Φωστήρ
Saint Gregory the Illuminator
Born	257,
Died	330
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church Armenian Apostolic Church Eastern Orthodox Churches Oriental Orthodox Churches Eastern Catholic Churches
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Saint Gregory the Illuminator or Saint Gregory the Enlightener (Armenian: Գրիգոր Լուսաւորիչ translit. Grigor Lusavorich, Greek: Γρηγόριος Φωστήρ or Φωτιστής, Gregorios Phoster or Photistes), the founder and patron saint of the Armenian Apostolic Church, was born about 257.

He belonged to the royal line of the Arsacid Dynasty, being the son of a Parthian named Anak, who assassinated Chosrov I King of Armenia, and thus brought ruin on himself and his family. His mother's name was Okohe, and the Armenian biographers tell how the first Christian influence he received was at the time of his conception, which took place near the monument raised to the memory of the holy apostle Thaddeus. Educated in Caesarea in Cappadocia by a Christian nobleman Euthalius, Gregory sought, when he came to man's estate, to introduce the Christian doctrine into his native land. At that time Tiridates III, a son of king Chosroes, sat on the throne. Influenced partly by the fact that Gregory was the son of his father's enemy, he subjected him to much cruel usage, and imprisoned him for fourteen years in a pit on the Ararat Plain under the present day church of Khor Virap located near by historical city Artashat in Armenia. It would be useless to recount the various forms of torture which the orthodox accounts represent the saint to have endured without permanent hurt; almost any one of his twelve trials would have been certain death to an ordinary mortal. But vengeance and madness fell upon the king, and at length Gregory was called forth from his pit to restore his royal persecutor to reason, by virtue of Gregory's saintly intercession.

Statue of St. Gregory the Illuminator standing in one of the exterior niches of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican near the entrance to the grotto. It is the only statue of an Eastern rite saint among the ones that surround the exterior of St. Peter's.

The cause of Christianity was now secured; king and princes and people vied with each other in obedience to Gregory's instruction. As a result, in 301, Armenia became the first country to adopt Christianity as its state religion. Convents, churches and schools were established. In 302, Gregory received consecration as Patriarch of Armenia from Leontius of Caesarea. In 318 Gregory appointed his son Aristaces to be his successor. About 331 he withdrew to a cave and lived as a hermit on Mt. Sebuh in the province of Daranalia in Upper Armenia, and there he died a few years later unattended and unobserved. When it was discovered he was dead his corpse was removed to the village of Thodanum or Tharotan. The remains of the saint were scattered far and near in the reign of Zeno. His head is believed to be now in Italy, his right hand at Echmiadzin, Armenia, and his left at the Holy See of Cilicia in Antelias, Lebanon.

A number of homilies, possibly spurious, several prayers, and about thirty of the canons of the Armenian Church are ascribed to Gregory. The homilies appeared for the first time in a work called Haschacnapadum at Constantinople in 1737; a century afterwards a Greek translation was published at Venice by the Mekhiterists; and they have since been edited in German by J. M. Schmid (Ratisbon, 1872). The original authorities for Gregory's life are Agathangelos, whose History of Tiridates was published by the Mekhitarists in 1835; Moses of Chorene, Historiae Armenicae; and Simeon Metaphrastes. A Life of Gregory by the Vartabed Matthew, published in Armenian at Venice in 1749, was translated into English by Rev. S. C. Malan, 1868.

The Khor Virap monastery, in the shadow of Mount Ararat, upon which Noah's Ark had once come to rest, was constructed in the 12th century on the site of Gregory's imprisonment.

The Armenian Church became extremely rich, besides the old temples which the church had confiscated, was granted large tracts of land. The church became the owner of approximately 10,000 farms and the clergy exploited these exactly as did the other Armenian princes. During wartime the church was obliged to assist the king with soldiers as well as taxes. It is on record that the church, if necessary, was obliged to provide the king with 5,000 cavalry and 4,000 infantry soldiers.

This article was taken from the 9th edition (1880) of an unnamed encyclopedia, and has since been edited on Wikipedia.

• Agathangelos, History of St. Gregory and the Conversion of Armenia

• Khor Virap
• Armenian Catholic Church
• Eastern Christianity
• Hermit

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