Hripsime

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St. Hripsime, mosaic ( Armenian Church Vienna , King Trdat at her feet)

Hripsime , also Rhipsime, Rhipsima , Armenian Հռիփսիմէ (* (allegedly) in Rome ; † around 300 in Vagharschapat , better known under the later name Etschmiadzin), is a consecrated virgin and martyr who is venerated as a saint above all in the Armenian Apostolic Church becomes.

Legend

According to legend, Hripsime is said to have been the granddaughter or niece of Protonike (Patronike), the wife of the Roman emperor Claudius , and thus belonged to the imperial family. She is said to have been a nun in a Roman convent, where St. Gaiana was her tutor. Because of her beauty, Emperor Diocletian had stalked Hripsime, which is why she and 70 other virgins fled Rome. In Jerusalem , the Virgin Mary appeared to the virgins and directed them to Edessa . From there they moved on to Armenia , where they divided. 37 virgins accompanied Hripsime and Gaiane to the Armenian capital. There, through a letter from Diocletian, the Armenian King Trdat III. attention to Hripsime and now wants her to be a wife too. But she wants to remain a nun and dies a martyr by beheading. However, through the sensational steadfastness of the “beloved Christ”, the king and people of Armenia are led to the Christian faith.

Adoration

Hripsimes grave in Echmiadzin

Already at the end of the 4th century her worship spread in Etchmiadzin , and in the middle of the 5th century a church was built in Echmiadzin. In 618 a church was built above the grave site of Hripsimes by Catholicos Komitas, in which her relics are located. Numerous other churches were dedicated to her in Armenia, where she became one of the most famous saints.

The feast day of St. Hripsime and that of St. Gaine in the Catholic Church is September 29th . In the Orthodox and Armenian Churches, their feast day is September 30th. The Coptic Church will commemorate her on September 26th, the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch on September 27th.

Some churches consecrated to Hripsime:

presentation

Grave church of St. Hripsime, Echmiadzin (photo from 1927)

Hripsime is shown in individual representations mainly in the Armenian Church, where she can usually be seen as a virgin with a book and cross. There is also the depiction of the martyrdom of Hripsime and Gaiane.

Exemplary representations in art are:

  • Miniature with the martyrdom of Hripsime and Gaiana, Menologion Basilius II , end of the 10th century (Vatican, Cod.vat.gr. 1613, fol. 75)
  • Miniature in an Armenian hymnal, 1651–1652 (Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum 37.19, fol. 255)
  • Fresco on a pillar in the Shamatun of Varagavank Church
  • Diaconation of the Church of the Savior on Nerediza, Russia, around 1200

literature

Web links

Commons : Saint Hripsime  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In his work Helena Augusta , Jan Willem Drijvers explains that the legend does not coincide with the historically transmitted facts . The Mother of Constantine the Great and the Legend of Her Finding of the True Cross , Groningen 1989, ISBN 90-04-09435-0 , p. 159 as follows: “The Name of Helena […] was […] changed into Protonike. [...] To solve the problem of chronology, the author (s) of P made Protonike Claudius' wife and Claudius in his turn was connected with Tiberius' reign [...] The fact that Protonike was Claudius' wife whereas Helena was Constanine's mother, seems a major change. However, probably already from the beginning of the fifth century onwards, Helena and Constantine were chiefly presented as an imperial couple, instead of as mother and son. ”Also in his study Marutha of Maipherquat on Helena Augusta, Jerusalem and the Council of Nicaea in Studia patristica XXXIV, Löwen 2001, p. 51 ff. He sees this connection between Claudius and Constantin on the one hand and Helena and Protonike on the other hand: "[...] Claudius, the emperor to whom Constantines' descent goes back [...] since in the Protonike legend , the empress Protonike is said to be the wife of Claudius. ”(p. 57) Cf. retro bib - page from Meyers Konversationslexikon: Kreuzen - Kreuzholz . In addition to the name Protonike, the form Patronike has also been handed down, cf. A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines T to Z ... - Google Books .
  2. ↑ Agop Hacikyan et al. a. (Ed.): The heritage of Armenian literature , Vol. 1: From the oral tradition to the Golden Age . Wayne State University Press, Detroit 2000, ISBN 0-8143-2815-6 , p. 121.
  3. ↑ Churches of Iran - Church of St. Hripsime, Ghazvin (Church of St. Hripsime was erected in 1936) , Farsinet.com.
personal data
SURNAME Hripsime
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rhipsima
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Christian virgin and martyr
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome
DATE OF DEATH at 300
Place of death Etchmiadzin