Armenians believed in the 5th century, when evidently it was composed. It gives an account of Bible history, refutes Arianism, Nestorianism and all other heresies down to that time. This supposed "Confession of St. Gregory" became a kind of creed to Armenians. In spite of all the wonders,[1] St. Gregory's education and ordination at Cæsarea in Cappadocia, the conversion of the king and evangelization of Armenia by him in the early 4th century are undoubtedly historical. Armenians remember him with good reason as their apostle and great national saint. They call him rightly St. Gregory the Illuminator (Srbotz Grigor Lusavoritsh).[2]
3. Catholic Armenia
Putting aside the later traditions (Moses of Khoren), which project into the first period of Armenian Church history the customs of their own time, we have a curious picture of the first Christian century. The dates of the conversion usually given are: King Trdat II, 259 or 276 to 314. St. Gregory and he are said to be born in the same year, 237. Trdat's conversion is put at about 290-295, Gregory's ordination at 302 and his death at 325. But this depends on Moses of Khoren's unreliable chronology.[3]
With the conversion of King Trdat,[4] Christianity became the
2 They keep feasts of his birth (August 5), sufferings (February 4), going into the pit (February 28), coming out of the pit (October 19), and translation of his relics (September 30). The Byzantine Church keeps his feast ((
Greek characters)) on September 30, as do the Jacobites. He occurs in the Roman martyrology on September 30 as: "Episcopus magnæ Armeniæ." Pope Gregory XVI put a feast among those "pro aliquibus locis" on October 1 for: "S. Gregorius, patriarcha Armeniæ, martyr, vulgo Illuminator." He was neither a patriarch nor a martyr. But it may be wished that the feast of the apostle of a great Christian nation be kept by the whole Roman rite.
- ↑ In the article: "Gregory the Illuminator" in the Catholic Encyclopædia, I have tried to distinguish the historical and the legendary elements of his life. See also further bibliography there.
- ↑ 2
- ↑ See the discussion in Tournebize: op. cit. 424-444. We shall see that all these dates (down to Shahak I) are unreliable (p. 402, n. 1). They are often not even consistent with one another.
- ↑ The fact of Trdat II's conversion is undoubtedly historical.
