Grigoris (Catholicos)

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Grigoris or Krikoris or Gregor (* approx. 302; † 343 in Thordan ) from the Gregorid family, was Catholicos ( patriarch ) of Albania (Aghwank) in the Caucasus and Iberia from about 327 to 343 AD . He died a martyr and is therefore venerated as a saint .

origin

Grigoris came from the Gregorid family - the descendants of Gregory the Illuminator , the first Catholicos (patriarch) of the Armenian Apostolic Church - who came from the Parthian house of the Suras-Pahlav, which in turn was a distant branch line of the Arsacids , who were considered great kings of Persia and from 54 to 428 AD when kings ruled Armenia .

According to the Armenian historians Moses von Choren and Moïse Kaghankatvatsi, Grigoris was the elder son of Vartanes I , who was Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church from around 333 to 341 AD.

His mother was a woman of unknown origin who his father was married to in his younger years. His brother was Husik I , who followed his father from 342 to 347 as a Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

His grandfather was Gregory the Illuminator , the first Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church (301 / (315) - 325).

biography

Catholicos (Patriarch)

Iberia around 300 AD

Grigoris grew up in a family that had made the office of Catholicos (Patriarch) of Greater Armenia practically hereditary, and was therefore also chosen for a spiritual career.

It is not known where he grew up or where he received his education, but it is likely that he followed the example of his father and brother and did so in Caesarea in Cappadocia (now Kayseri in Central Anatolia in Turkey ), where was then a famous center of religious learning.

Thanks to the successful efforts of the patriarchs of his family during the reign of King Chosroes II the Little (approx. 330 - 338) in Armenia, the Christian religion had stabilized to such an extent that one could think of doing missionary work in neighboring countries as well.

After Moses of Choren and Faustus of Byzantium , Grigoris, the son of Catholicos Vartanes I of the Armenian Apostolic Church, was chosen to spread the Christian faith in the kingdoms of Iberia and Albania (Aghwank) in the Caucasus .

Grigoris was therefore - at the young age of only 15 - in the Amaras Monastery (near the village of Soss in today's Martuni region of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic ) to the Catholicos of Albania in the Caucasus - which is now roughly the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the southern part of Dagestan corresponds - and raised from Iberia (historical Georgian state in the Caucasus) and consecrated by his own brother, Husik I , the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

The Armenian historian Moses von Choren justifies the early entrustment with this important office by referring to King Solomon , who would have assumed power at the age of twelve.

After prolonged missionary work by sent priests, Gregory finally went on a journey himself to do missionary work in the south of Albania. On the way there he came to the historical Armenian province of Artsakh (Armenian Արցախ, corresponds roughly to the present day Nagorno-Karabakh), which at that time was a stepping stone for the Armenian Church to evangelise neighboring areas. This province fell to the Kingdom of Albania in 387. He moved on to Paytakaran (easternmost province of Greater Armenia ) and set up camp at the confluence of the Aras (Araxes) with the Kura River .

martyr

A short time later, however, Grigoris was picked up and killed there on the plain of Vatnik (Vatnean) near the Caspian Sea by men of Prince Sanatruk (Sanesan) of Paytakaran. This although Sanatruk, like the kings of Armenia - and also Grigoris himself - belonged to the family of the Arsacids . The decisive factor, however, was probably the fact that Sanatruk was not ready to give up the pagan religion of his fathers and that he did not want to allow his domain to come under the religious influence of the Armenian Church and politically too much under the control of the Armenian kings.

When Grigoris was murdered in 343, two of his sons - Daniel and Eghia, who were their father's students and who had accompanied him on the missionary trip - were also killed.

As Faustus reports from Byzantium, Sanatruk (Sanesan) subsequently undertook an attack on the Kingdom of Armenia with the help of Alanic auxiliaries and nomadic troops from the Russian steppe, which forced King Khosrov II and the Armenian Patriarch Vartanes I - Grigori's father were to flee to the fortress of Tarionq in the Kogovit district of the historical province of Ayrarat (today divided between Armenia and Turkey), where the capital of the kingdom, Dvin and the residence of the Armenian patriarch, Echmiadzin were located.

Church of St. Grigoris at the place of his martyrdom.

An Armenian army, which was under the command of Vatche Mamikonian and was supported by other princes, such as Bagrat Bagratuni from the House of the Bagratids , Vahan Amatouni, Mehoudak Rechtouni and Garegin Rechtouni, was able to repel the attackers in front of Etschmiadzin and advance in a second battle Defeat Ochakan in Aragatzotn District, killing Sanatruk. After Moses von Choren, the Armenians called on the Roman Empire against Sanatruk , whose general, Antiochus, forced Sanatruk to flee to Shapur II , the great king of the Persian Empire from the house of the Sassanids .

Thus the murder of Grigori politically led to a closer political connection between the Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Greater Armenia, which is also explained by the consensus of religion, since the Romans supported Armenia since the conversion of Constantine the Great to Christianity, while the Persian Empire tried the Sassanids was to maintain the resistance of the still existing pagan population groups against Christianization .

Amaras Monastery Church of St. Grigoris

Tomb

There are various accounts of the whereabouts of Grigori's remains. After one, they were taken to the village of Haku by Syrian monks. According to another tradition, which Moses reports of choruses, they were brought to "Little Sjunik " by his deacons and buried in the village of Amaras (in the modern Martuni region in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic). This is also confirmed by Faustus of Byzantium, who reports that Grigoris lived in the church built by his grandfather Gregory the Illuminator in 310 in Amaras (today a de facto village in the province of Hadrut in the Nagorno-Karabakh republic, de jure part of the Khojavend province of Azerbaijan) which is part of the Amaras Monastery , which is one of the oldest Christian monuments in the world. The tomb that was erected for him still exists today and is located under the apse of the church of St. Grigoris, renovated in the 19th century, which is dedicated to the Catholicos Grigoris as a martyr and saint. Grigoris was first buried at the eastern end of the original fourth century church of St. Gregory, which has now disappeared. In 489 Vachgan (Watschagan) III. the Pious, King of Albania (Aghvank), renovate the monastery that has now been built there and build a new chapel for the relics of St. Grigoris, the church being rebuilt over this chapel in later centuries. The barrel-vaulted crypt is located under the altar of the church, is 3.75 m long, 3.5 m high and 1.9 m wide. The existing sculptures indicate a time of origin in the 5th century.

After the death of Grigoris, there was a temporary revival of paganism in Albania and Iberia, but the Christian mission in the Caucasus was by no means given up. The successors of Catholicos Grigoris, the Armenian bishops of Albania, resided in Bardav (Perav, Berdaa) southeast of Gandja (today the second largest city of Azerbaijan)

Marriage and children

At a younger age, Grigoris was married to a woman of unknown origin and had at least two sons with her.

Sons:

  • Daniel († young)
  • Eghia († young)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Moïse de Khorène Histoire de l'Arménie , Livre III, chapitre 3.
  2. ^ René Grousset: Histoire de l´Arménie. Payot, Paris 1973, p. 130.
  3. ↑ Moses von Choren: op. Cit. Volume III Chapter 3
  4. ↑ Faustus of Byzantium: History of Armenia. 3rd book, chapter 6.
  5. ↑ Pavstos Buzand: The Epic Histories Attributed to P'awstos Buzand. translated into English by N. Garsoian. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1983, ISBN 0-674-25865-7 , IV.50; V.12.
  6. ↑ Moses von Choren op. Cit. Volume III, Chapter 6
  7. ↑ Grousset: Histoire de l'Arménie. 1973, p. 130.
  8. ↑ Grousset: Histoire de l'Arménie. 1973, p. 130.
  9. ↑ Grousset: Histoire de l'Arménie. 1973, p. 130.
  10. ↑ Moses von Choren op. Cit. Volume III, Chapters VI and IX.
  11. ↑ M. Hasratyan: Amaras. Yerevan 1990.
  12. ↑ Grousset: Histoire de l'Arménie. 1973, p. 131.
  13. ↑ G. Dumezil: Une Chrétienté disparue. Les Albaniens du Caucase, Mélanges Asiatiques. In: Journal Asiatique. 1940 - 41 Fascicle 1, p. 126.
  14. ↑ See article "Grigoris" in French.

literature

  • Gérard Dédéyan (dir.): Histoire du peuple arménien. Private, Toulouse 2007, ISBN 978-2-7089-6874-5 , p. 166.
  • René Grousset: Histoire de l´Arménie - des origines á 1071. Payot, Paris 1973.
  • Robert H. Hewsen: The successors of Tiridat the Great. A contribution to the history of Armenia in the Fourth Century. In: REArm. 13 (1978/79) pp. 99-126.
  • Richard G. Hovannisian (dir.): Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times. Part I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century. Palgrave Macmillan, New York 1997, ISBN 1-4039-6421-1 .
  • Christian Settipani ; Nos ancetres de l'Antiquité. Editions Christian, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-86496-050-6 .
  • Cyril Toumanoff : Manuel de généalogie et de chronologie pour le Caucase chrétien (Arménie, Géorgie, Albanie). Édition Aquila, Rome 1976.
  • Cyril Toumanoff: Studies in Christian Caucasian History. Georgetown 1963.
  • Victor Langlois: Collection des Historiens Anciens et Modernes de l´Armenie. Paris 1869.

See also

personal data
SURNAME Grigoris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Krikoris
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catholicos of Albania and Iberia
DATE OF BIRTH at 302
DATE OF DEATH 343
Place of death Thordan