Gregory the Illuminator | |
|---|---|
 A 14th centuryByzantine mosaic of Gregory at thePammakaristos Church in Constantinople (today Fethiye Camii, Istanbul)[1][2] | |
| Catholicos of All Armenians (Patriarch of Armenia) | |
| Born | 3rd century Kingdom of Armenia |
| Died | c. 331 Daranali,Kingdom of Armenia (present-dayKemah, 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 30 (Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Catholic Church), October 1 (Catholic Church- 1962 Roman Missal) |
| Patronage | Armenia;Nardò, Italy |
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Gregory the Illuminator[a][b] (c. 257 –c. 331) was the founder and first officialhead of theArmenian Apostolic Church.[c] Heconverted Armenia fromZoroastrianism[6] toChristianity 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 asaint in the Armenian Apostolic Church and in some other churches.
Gregory is said to have been the son of aParthian nobleman,Anak, who assassinated theArsacid king of ArmeniaKhosrov II. The young Gregory was saved from the extermination of Anak's family and was raised as a Christian inCaesarea ofCappadocia, then part of theRoman Empire. Gregory returned to Armenia as an adult and entered the service of KingTiridates 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 calledKhor Virap for 14 years. Gregory was miraculously saved from death and released after many years with the help of Tiridates' sisterKhosrovidukht. 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 ahermit and was succeeded by his sonAristaces. Gregory's descendants, called theGregorids, 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 calledlusavorchakan ("of the Illuminator") or Gregorian.[7]
In the Armenian tradition, the standard version of the life of Gregory the Illuminator derives from the fifth-centuryhagiographic history attributed toAgathangelos.[8] According to Agathangelos's account, Gregory was the son of theParthian noblemanAnak; the later Armenian historianMovses Khorenatsi identifies Anak as a member of the Parthian noble house ofSuren.[9][10] At the incitation of theSasanian kingArdashir I, who promised to return Anak his domain as a reward, the Parthian nobleman went to Armenia and assassinated theArsacid king of ArmeniaKhosrov II after gaining his confidence.[11] Anak was then put to death by the Armenian nobles along with his entire family․[11] Anak's son Gregory narrowly escaped execution with the help of his nurse, whom Khorenatsi calls Sophy, sister of a Cappadocian notable named Euthalius (Ewtʻagh).[12] Gregory was taken toCaesarea inCappadocia, where he received a Christian upbringing.[13]Jean-Michel Thierry described him as of "Cappadocian culture and religion" and credited him with having introduced "Greek civilization to Armenia."[14]
According to Khorenatsi, upon coming of age, Gregory marriedMariam, daughter of a Christian named David.[15][16] He had two children with Mariam:Aristaces andVrtanes, who would later succeed Gregory as patriarchs of Armenia.[15][16]
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After the birth of their sons,Mariam and Gregory separated, and Gregory went to Armenia to enter the service of KingTiridates III, son of the assassinated king Khosrov II.[16][17][d] After Gregory refused to sacrifice to the goddessAnahit, the king had Gregory imprisoned and subjected to many tortures.[19] Once Tiridates discovered that Gregory was the son of his father's killer, he had Gregory thrown into a deep pit calledKhor Virap nearArtaxata, where he remained for thirteen (or fifteen) years.[17][20][21] In Agathangelos's history, Gregory is miraculously saved and brought out from the pit after Tiridates' sisterKhosrovidukht sees a vision.[17] Gregory then healed the king, who, Agathangelos writes, had been driven into animal madness for his sinful behavior.[22] Tiridates and his court accepted Christianity, making Armenia the first state to adopt Christianity as its official religion.[23][e]
After being released, Gregory preached the Christian faith in Armenia and erected shrines to the martyrsGayane andHripsime inVagharshapat on a spot indicated to him in a vision.[17][f] Vagharshapat would later become home to themother church of Armenian Christianity and, by medieval times, called Ejmiatsin ("descent of the only-begotten") in reference to Gregory's vision.[26][g] Gregory, sometimes accompanied by Tiridates,[25] went around Armenia destroying pagantemples, defeating the armed resistance of the pagan priests.[27] Gregory then went to Caesarea with a retinue of Armenian princes and was consecrated bishop of Armenia byLeontius of Caesarea.[17] Until the death ofNerses 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.[28]
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.[25][h] On the site of the destroyed temple toVahagn atAshtishat, 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.[30][25] Gregory met King Tiridates near the town ofBagavan and baptized the Armenian king, army and people in theEuphrates.[30] In two non-Armenian versions of Agathangelos's history, Gregory also baptizes together with Tiridates the kings ofCaucasian Albania,Georgia andLazica/Abkhazia.[31] He founded schools for the Christian education of children, where the languages of instruction wereGreek andSyriac.[7][32] He established the ecclesiastical structure of Armenia, appointing as bishops some of the children of pagan priests.[7][33] Gregory is also said to have journeyed to Rome with King Tiridates in an embassy to the recently convertedConstantine the Great, but scholarRobert W. Thomson views this as fictional.[23]
The conversion of Armenia to Christianity is traditionally dated to 301, but modern scholarship considers a later date, approximately 314, to be a more likely.[24] 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.[34][35]
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 ofDaranali inUpper Armenia.[36][i] The Patriarchate of Armenia would be held as a hereditary office, with some interruptions, by the house of Gregory, called theGregorids, until the death of PatriarchIsaac in the fifth century.[38][39] According to Movses Khorenatsi, Gregory sometimes came out from his hermitage and traveled around the country until Aristaces returned from theCouncil of Nicaea (325), after which Gregory never appeared to anyone again.[40] He died in seclusion in the cave of Manē and was buried nearby by shepherds who did not know who he was.[41] 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.[42]
Levon Ter-Petrosyan, philologist and Armenia's first president, postulates that Gregory andMesrop Mashtots had the most influence on the course of Armenian history.[43]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 strongpro-Hellenic bias, trained the children of pagan priests and assembled their own disciples to spread the faith through learning.[44]
After his death his corpse was removed to the village of Thodanum (T'ordan, modernDoğanköy, Kemah, nearErzincan).
TheMother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, theArmenian Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia, theArmenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem and theArmenian Patriarchate of Constantinople each claim to have relics from the right arm of the saint, in an arm-shaped reliquary.[45] Thecatholicosates of Etchmiadzin and Cilicia use the arm relic for the blessing of theHoly 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.[46] Two other feast days in the Armenian Apostolic Church are devoted to St. Gregory: the feast of his entry intoKhor 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).[47]
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 inTalin.[48] He is depicted next to John the Baptist, the prophetElijah, and most likely Thaddeus,James of Nisibis, and the apostle Bartholomew on the east façade of the tenth-centuryAghtamar Cathedral inLake Van.[49] Sixteen scenes depicting Gregory's life are painted in theChurch of Tigran Honents inAni (1215), that contains the most complete painted interior of all medieval Armenian monuments.[50]
Gregory is depicted on the silver reliquary of Skevra (1293), the best known work of precious metal fromArmenian Cilicia, along with Saint Thaddeus,[51] and on the reliquary of the Holy Sign (1300), another significant piece of Armenian metalwork made at theMonastery of Khotakerats, along with John the Baptist.[52] 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.[53] At theVank Cathedral inNew Julfa, the Armenian district ofIsfahan, Iran, Gregory's martyrdom was painted in a European style by the Italian-trainedHovhannes M'rkuz Jułayeci in 1646.[54]
![A miniature of Gregory and Trdat (as a boar) by Vardan Baghishetsi on a manuscript from Baghesh, Vaspurakan, c. 1569–70[55]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aSaint_Gr%25C3%25A9goire_et_la_foule%2c_1569.jpg)
Gregory is commemorated on September 30 by theEastern 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 theEastern Roman EmperorZeno.[56] Relic fragments are found at theKarakallou Monastery andIviron Monastery onMount Athos; theGregoriou Monastery claims to have the saint's skull.[57]
Veneration of Gregory began in theByzantine Empire in the late 9th century with the ascend ofBasil I. A 9th century mosaic of Gregory was uncovered inHagia Sophia under a layer of plaster in 1847–49 during the restoration by theFossati brothers.[58] Located in the southtympanum, next to theFathers of the Church, it shows Gregory standing in bishop robes, blessing with one hand and holding theBook of the Gospels with the other.[59] The mosaic, thought to have been destroyed in the1894 earthquake, survives in drawing byWilhelm 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 PatriarchPhotios I of Constantinople.[60][61]
Gregory is depicted in two prominent Byzantine illuminated manuscripts—theMenologion of Basil II (c. 1000)[62] and theTheodore Psalter (1066)[63][64]—and in a number of Byzantine churches and monasteries, most notablyHosios Loukas (11th century),[65]Church of Panagia Chalkeon inThessaloniki (11th century), and thePammakaristos Church in Constantinople (14th century).[1]
One of the sections of Moscow's iconicSaint Basil's Cathedral is named after Gregory the Armenian (Tserkov Grigoriya Armyanskogo). It is dedicated to the capture of Ars Tower of theKazan Kremlin byIvan the Terrible during theSiege of Kazan on September 30, 1552, on his feast day.[66]
![Lost mosaic from Hagia Sophia (9th century)[j]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aGregory_the_Illuminator_mosaic_in_Hagia_Sophia_by_Wilhelm_Salzenberg.jpg)
![in the Menologion of Basil II (c. 1000)[62]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aMenologion_of_Basil_038.jpg)
![in the Theodore Psalter (1066)[k]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aTheodore_Psalter._Gregory_brings_Tiridates_to_Christ.jpg)
![A mosaic at the Pammakaristos Church (14th century)[1]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aIstanbul_-_Chiesa_Pammacaristos_(Fetiye_camii)_-_San_Gregorio_armeniaco_-_Foto_G._Dall%2527Orto_26-5-2006.jpg)
In the 8th century, theiconoclast decrees in Greece caused a number of religious orders to flee theByzantine Empire and seek refuge elsewhere.San Gregorio Armeno inNaples was built in that century over the remains of a Roman temple dedicated toCeres, by a group of nuns escaping from the Byzantine Empire with the relics of Gregory,[68] including his skull, arms, a femur bone, his staff, the leather straps used in his torture and the manacles that held the saint.[69][70] The femur and manacles were returned byPope John Paul II to CatholicosKarekin II and are now enshrined atSaint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral inYerevan.[71]
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 atNardò Cathedral: one is kept in a silver bust of the saint,[72] which is carried in processions, and the other, the metacarpus, is kept within a silver arm-shaped reliquary.[73]
The feast day of Saint Gregory the Illuminator is on September 30 according to both the 2004Roman Martyrology of theOrdinary Form and the 1956 Roman Martyrology[74] of theExtraordinary Form of theCatholic Church; however, the 1962Roman Missal[75] 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 theCarrara marble was installed in the north courtyard ofSt. Peter's Basilica inVatican City in January 2005. Sculpted by France-based Lebanese-Armenian sculptor Khatchik Kazandjian, the statue was inaugurated byPope John Paul II. Gregory is depicted holding a cross in one hand and the Bible in the other.[76][77][78][79]Pope Benedict XVI inaugurated the area asSt. Gregory the Illuminator Courtyard in February 2008.[80]
Church ofSan Gregorio Armeno is a church and a monastery inNaples,Italy named after the Gregory the Illuminator
He is honored with afeast day on theliturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on March 23.[81]
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The second break was initiated by the ascendance of Christianity over Zoroastrianism as Armenia's state religion.
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| Preceded by New creation | Catholicos of the Holy See of St. Echmiadzin and All Armenians 288–325 | Succeeded by |
