ARISTACE (RASTAKES). - Younger son of St. Gregory the Illuminator, educated in Caesarea of Cappadocia, he chose the eremitic life at a young age, until Tiridates, king of Armenia, called him from his hermitage in Valaršapat and had him ordained priest and auxiliary bishop to his father, the first katholikos of Christian Armenia.

A. was also sent by St. Gregory to the Council of Nicaea (cf. Gelzer-Hilgenfeld-Cuntz, Patrum Nicaenorum nomina, Leipzig 1898, pp. LVI, LXII), as representative of the Armenian Church, and he brought its canons back to Armenia; when St. Gregory withdrew into solitude in his last years, he left the see of the katholikos to A., who was a worthy successor to him (325-33). He was killed by Arcesilaus, prince of Fourth Armenia, whom he had reproached for his lustful life.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: I. B. Aucherian, Hagiographia (in Armenian), Venice 1812, pp. 481-90; V. Langlois, Collect. des hist. anciens et modernes de l'Arménie, Paris 1867; L. Petit, s. v. in DThC, I, col. 1894; G. Amaduni, Monachismo armeno, Venice 1940, pp. 57, 162; Mansi, II, col. 699.

Serafino Akelian

@incollection{ec1_aristace_rastakes, author = {Akelian, Serafino}, title = {Aristace (Rastakes)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {1905}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/aristace-rastakes} }

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