Gregory of Narek, Saint

GREGORY OF NAREK, Saint. - He is the most luminous figure of ancient Armenian literature. Born in 945, died in 1010, he was a theologian, mystical doctor, eloquent orator, exegete and poet.

His earliest work is the Commentary on the Song of Songs, in which, in an elegant and easy style, he explains the mystical meaning of the book. He then wrote the well-known panegyrics on St. James of Nisibis, on the Apostles, on the Holy Cross, on the Blessed Virgin; the last of these is the finest. Several Religious Lyrics are also attributed to him, in which elements of popular poetry and images of marked realism are at times interwoven, with mystical concepts and sentiments. His masterpiece is the collection of prayers, which he called Elegies, but commonly Narek, from the name of the monastery where he lived and died. They are 95 prayers, each composed of various parts which, added together, give the number 366. In the Narek, under the form of prayer, the poet expresses not only his ardent desire to be purified and raised to uncreated holiness itself, but the entire universe, purified and raised up, dissolves into a canticle of love to the Lord. Everything in this work is expressed with loftiness of concepts, with depth of feeling, with an outpouring of images, in a dense and highly personal style, in a language rich in lexical treasures.