Gregory II. Vkayaser

Vahram Pahlavuni ( Armenian : Գրիգոր Բ Վկայասեր; † December 5, 1105 in the Karmir Vanq monastery near Kessoun ) was from 1065 to 1105 as Gregory II. Vkayaser Catholicos of the Armenian Church .

He was a son of Gregorios Magistros Pahlavuni, the strategos of Mesopotamia. He served in the Byzantine army but then entered the monastery.

With the approval of Emperor Constantine X , he was elected Catholicos at the council in Tzamandos in Cappadocia, the seat of the emigrated Armenian king Gagik of Kars , after the office had been vacant for five years. He was nicknamed Vkayaser ("martyr friend") because he collected relics and legends of saints with great zeal. However, he found himself exposed to opposition from the Byzantine Orthodox bishops, and above all from John VIII , the Patriarch of Constantinople. In 1071 he retired to the monastery after he had appointed his confidante Georg von Lori as his successor.

After learning of the Byzantine defeat at Mantzikert in 1071, he took over his previous office again, took his seat in a monastery on the "Black Mountain" in Cilicia and began to campaign for concerted action against the Seljuks. He also visited Egypt, the Holy Land and Constantinople. According to Matthias von Edessa (Chronicle 2, 108), Vahram also traveled to Rome, but this is rejected by most historians as unlikely. According to another source, he met with Pope Silvester .

According to other sources, Gregory II sent a priest named John as an ambassador to Pope Gregory VII in Rome to ask him for help against the Seljuks. The Pope listened to him, made numerous proposals for liturgical changes, but sent him back to Asia Minor with a pallium .

Gregory II set his nephew Barsegh (1081–1105) as bishop in Ani, which was occupied by the Seljuk regime. In 1103 he visited Edessa , where he was splendidly received by Baldwin II . In his last years Vahram lived increasingly withdrawn. He died on December 5, 1105 in the Karmir Vanq monastery near Kessoun . His nephew Barsegh von Ani presided over his funeral and thus became a recognized new Catholicos.

literature

• Charles A. Frazee: The Christian Church in Cilician Armenia: its relations with Rome and Constantinople to 1198. In: Church History. 45, 2, 1976, pp. 166-184.
• A. Kapoian-Kouymjian: Le Catholicos Grégoire II le Martyrophile (Vkayaser) et ses pérégrinations. In: Bazmavep. 132, 1974, pp. 85-90.
• https://www.academia.edu/8111631/Catholicos_Grigor_the_Martyrophiles_Treatise_on_Sunday_Observance_and_against_Insults

See also: List of Katholikoi of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church

predecessor	Office	successor
Chatschig II.	Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church 1065–1105	Barsegh from Ani