GREGORY OF NAREK (of Narek), saint. — He is the most luminous figure of ancient Armenian literature. Born in 945, died in 1010, he was a theological doctor of mysticism, an eloquent orator, a preacher, and a poet.
His earliest work is the Commentary on the Song of Songs, in which, with elegant and easy style, he explains the mystical sense of the book. He then wrote the well-known panegyrics on St. James of Nisibis, on the Apostles, on the Holy Cross, and on the Blessed Virgin; the last of these is the most beautiful. Several religious lyrics are also attributed to him, in which elements of popular poetry and images of striking realism sometimes intertwine with mystical concepts and sentiments. His masterpiece is the collection of prayers, which he called Elegies, but which are commonly known as the Narek, from the name of the monastery where he lived and died. There are 95 prayers, each composed of various parts which, when added together, give the number 366. In the Narek, under the form of prayer, the poet not only expresses his ardent desire to be purified and elevated to the same uncertain sanctity, but the entire universe, purified and elevated, sings a song of love to the Lord. Everything in this work is expressed with loftiness of concepts, depth of feeling, effusion of images, in a dense and highly personal style, in a language rich in lexical wealth.