GREGORY THE ILLUMINATOR, Saint. - Born presumably around 250-52 of a noble Arsacid family, hence also called Partheu (Parthian).
His father Anak, one of the principal satraps, induced by the Sassanids of Persia (probably by the successor of Artashir, Shapur I [242-72/73]), killed Khosrov I, king of Armenia, the only surviving Arsacid, and in turn was massacred together with his family by the loyal followers of Khosrov I during the flight toward Persia. A single child, saved by his nurse and later baptized, was named G.
G., now an adult, found himself, in the retinue of King Tiridates, before the altar of the goddess Anahit. And because he refused to venerate the idol he was subjected to many tortures; then, led toward the province of Ararat, he was thrown into a prison-pit called Khorvirap, near Artashat, to be food for vipers. An edict condemned all followers of Christianity (Agathangelos, XII, p. 106 ff.). Tiridates was then struck by a grave illness. His sister Khosrovidukht saw in a dream that only through the intervention of G., still languishing in the prison 15 years after the edict, would the king be healed. Set free, G. healed the body and soul of the monarch and converted his court. An edict banished throughout all Armenia the faith of G. (295-300: Sozomen, Hist. eccl., II, 8). Pressed by the entreaties of the court and the people, G. was conducted to Caesarea of Cappadocia with pomp and was ordained by the exarch Leontius as priest and bishop, and then metropolitan of Armenia. This took place in the summer of 302 or perhaps earlier, ca. 295 (cf. F. Tournebize, see bibliography). On his return, accompanied by a host of clerics gathered from Sebaste and from various cities of Lesser Armenia, G. entered the province of Taron and in the waters of the Euphrates baptized the King, the court and many thousands of citizens. On the remains of the pagan center of Ashtishat, to the west of the present-day city of Mush, he built the first cathedral (Majr Tekeletzi = "mother-church") of Armenia, which until the 5th century was the seat of the katholikoi.
Five years of activity of St. G., precisely when the last persecution was raging throughout the entire Roman Empire, is summed up in the destruction of pagan temples and idols and in the erection of churches, aided in this by the military force of King Tiridates. G. organized the entire Armenian Church. The historian Agathangelos mentions the ordination of as many as 400 bishops (!), an exaggerated figure, given that in subsequent eras the known sees, resulting also from national synods, do not exceed 30-40. All the churches were endowed with ecclesiastical benefices, consisting of 4 fields for those of the villages and of 7 buildings for those of the cities. The seat of the katholikos had 15 cantons rich in various provinces of Armenia, among which Ashtishat was the principal. Later documents worthy of credence speak of this endowment made by the King.
The date of the death of St. G. is unknown. During the Council of Nicaea (325) he was still living; but he was represented at the Synod by St. Aristakes, his son. The last years of G. were spent in solitude among the Sepuh mountains. The relics, jealously guarded, were later partially transferred to Constantinople. In Armenia the right hand always remained, which later became the symbol of patriarchal jurisdiction. In Naples, in the church of S. Gregorio armeno, the skull is preserved, much venerated by the Armenians. Gregory XVI inserted the name of G. in the Roman Martyrology, fixing its date at October 1, though it appears there on September 30, as in the Synaxaria and Byzantine Menologia.