Origins and Early Life
Gregory was born around 257 in the Kingdom of Armenia, the son of Anak, a Parthian nobleman descended from the Arsacid royal line and a member of the House of Suren. At the instigation of the Sasanian king, Anak assassinated the reigning Armenian king (variously recorded as Khosrov II or Kursar), and as a consequence Anak and his entire family were put to death.
Gregory escaped the slaughter as an infant, carried away by a nurse who took him to Caesarea in Cappadocia. There he was raised as a Christian. As an adult he married Mariam, daughter of a Christian named David, and they had two sons, Aristaces and Vrtanes, both of whom would later serve as patriarchs of the Armenian church. Returning to Armenia, Gregory entered the service of King Tiridates III in order to atone for his father's crime.
Confession and Imprisonment
Tiridates at first valued Gregory, but on learning of his Christian faith he demanded that Gregory take part in pagan sacrifices to the goddess Anahit. When Gregory refused, the king subjected him to severe tortures, recorded by tradition as suspension with a stone hung from his neck, smoke inhalation, beatings, iron sandals studded with nails, and hot tin poured over his body.
Gregory was then cast into a deep pit known as Khor Virap, filled with venomous snakes and scorpions, where he remained for approximately thirteen years. By tradition pious women secretly sustained him with bread throughout his long imprisonment. During this same period Tiridates put to death Saint Rhipsime, the abbess Gaiana, and a company of virgin martyrs.
The Conversion of Armenia
After the martyrdom of the virgins, divine judgment is said to have fallen upon Tiridates and his soldiers, who were driven mad and behaved like wild beasts. The king's sister, Khosrovidukht, received a vision that only Gregory could heal him. Gregory was drawn up from the pit and, through his prayers, healed the king.
Tiridates repented and was converted, and Gregory baptized the king and the people, by tradition in the Euphrates River, around 301. Armenia thus became the first kingdom to embrace Christianity as its state faith. Around 302 Gregory was consecrated bishop of all the Armenians by Leontius of Caesarea.
Episcopate and Legacy
As first bishop, Gregory organized the ecclesiastical structure of the Armenian church. He destroyed pagan temples and built churches throughout the land, ordained priests, established monasteries, and founded Christian schools where Greek and Syriac were taught. Around 303 he founded the Cathedral of Etchmiadzin near Mount Ararat, which became the seat of the Catholicos.
Around 318 he appointed his son Aristaces as his successor and withdrew as a hermit, by tradition to a cave in Daranali in Upper Armenia. He died in seclusion around 331 and was buried nearby by shepherds. His son Aristaces attended the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325. Gregory's descendants, known as the Gregorids, held the patriarchate hereditarily until the fifth century, and the Armenian Church is sometimes called 'Gregorian' in his honor.
Relics & Shrines
Gregory's relics were distributed among multiple churches. Four institutions are recorded as claiming portions of his right arm, a relic associated with the office of the Catholicos.
