Gregory the Illuminator
Patriarch of Armenia
Saint
Events
Date of Birth: unknown.
Place of Birth: unknown.
It is usually estimated in the 240s or 250s.
Date of Death: unknown.
It was sometime around 330.
Place of Burial: T‘ordan, Daranalik‘.
The place is given in the Epic Histories [3.2].
Relationships
Father: said to be Anak.
This relationship is given in the Epic Histories [3.2]. In Agathangelos, Anak is described as a leading Parthian chieftan. Some have questioned the historicity of his name, suggesting that it may be just a derogatory epithet since it seems to mean “evil” (or possibly “not evil”), and he plays an evil role in Gregory’s origin story. Movses Khorenatsi states that he was of the Iranian house of Sūrēn (2.28, 2.74, 2.91) (Garsoian 1989, p. 347). This seems to be supported by Ghazar P'arpets'i [14], writing about Gregory’s descendant the patriarch Sahak.
Mother: unknown.
Spouse: unknown.
Children:
(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)
Aristakēs (died about 328).
Evidence
The attendance of Grigor’s son Aristakes at the Council of Nicaea in 325 is well attested in conciliar lists (eight different lists in Patrum Nicaenorum Nomina) as well as in Armenian sources.
from the Epic Histories [3:10]:
And he was present at the great synod [sic] of Nikia, which took place in the days of Constantine, the emperor of the Romans, [and] at which three hundred and eighteen bishops gathered together to anathematize the heresy of Arianos of Alexandria, who was from the province of Egypt. All the bishops took their seats there before Constantine; and Aristakes, the son of the wondrous Grigor the first kat‘olikos of Greater Armenia, was present from Greater Armenia.
from Ghazar P'arpets'i [14]:
King Vahram then summoned Suren pahlaw his hazarapet who was of the same azg and tohm as the great patriarch Sahak…When Suren heard this reply from Sahak, the great patriarch of Armenia, a man of his own tohm, he went and related it to the king of the Aryans…
References
The Epic Histories Attributed to P‘awstos Buzand (Nina G Garsoïan tr. and comm.) (Harvard U.P., 1989).
Garsoïan, Nina. “The Aršakuni Dynasty” in The Armenian People from Anicent to Modern Times v. 1 (Richard G. Hovannisian ed.) (St Martin’s Press, 1997).
“Généalogie de la famille de Saint Grégoire, Illuminateur de l’Arménie, et vie de Saint Nersès, patriarche des Arméniens, par un auteur anonyme du Ve siècle” (Jean-Raphael Emine tr.) in Collection des historiens anciens et modernes de l’Arménie v. 2 (1869).
Ghazar P'arpets'i. History of the Armenians (R. Bedrosian tr.) (1985)
“Gregory the Illuminator” in The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity (2018).
Moise de Khorène. Histoire d’Arménie (Florival tr.) (Paris, 1841).
Patrum Nicaenorum Nomina: Latine Graece Coptice Syriace Arabice Armeniace (Gelzer et al. ed.) (Teubner Verlag, 1995).
Russell, James R. “Faustus” in Encyclopædia Iranica (1999, updated 2012, online edition).
Thomas, R. W. “Agathangelos” in (1984, updated 2011, online edition).