About Anno Domini 260 the king reigning in Armenia by the name of Terdat, persecuted Christianity. He had regained his throne through the support of the Roman Army, and to celebrate his accession he offered thanksgiving and sacrifice in the temple of the goddess Anahid, which was no other than the goddess Diana of the Romans, but the fathers of the Armenian church in their christian zeal have reversed the name of the goddess, made a topsy-turvy of it, calling her Anahid, and so the name has remained in the Armenian language to this day.
This occasion of the king’s worship and thanksgiving in the temple of Diana, marked the beginning of the persecution of Gregory, afterwards known as Gregory the Illuminator and the patron saint of Armenia. The childhood of Gregory had been shadowed by a parent’s guilt: his father Anak having treacherously assassinated the then reigning king Khosrov the Great, the whole family was exterminated, only two sons escaping death, one of them, Gregory, was secretly removed by his nurse to Caesaria, and kept in concealment, until in the course of years the father’s crime having been forgotten, all danger for the life of the son was supposed to have passed away.
SOORB GREGORE LOOSAVORITCH.
(St. Gregory the Illuminator)
Patron Saint of Armenia. Revived Christianity in Armenia in A.D. 276.
Gregory’s christian faith however now became the cause of his misfortunes; the king called upon Gregory to assist in the worship in the temple of Diana, but he firmly refused and boldly avowed his christianity, which so incensed the king that he ordered frightful tortures to be inflicted upon him, but as the tortures had no effect and Gregory remained firm to his faith, the king ordered him to be thrown into a dry well. The story goes on to relate that Gregory lived for fifteen years in this dry well, food and drink being conveyed to him secretly by a woman, herself a christian. On this spot is built the famous monastery of “Khorvirap” meaning “deep well.”
A beautiful Roman maiden by the name of Rhipsimè fleeing from the addresses of the Emperor Diocletian sought refuge in Armenia; she was accompanied by a friend, a woman of maturer years of the name of Caiana, and some other christian maidens, all fleeing from persecution in Rome.
Rhipsimè’s rare beauty had captivated the Roman emperor, and she had sought to escape from his passion by flight, but a crueller fate awaited her in Armenia, for king Terdat in his turn smitten by the exquisite beauty of her face offered to make her his queen, and her refusal to accept his throne and his love so exasperated the king that he ordered her beautiful head to be cut off. Thus Rhipsimè with Caiana and their young companions were cruelly martyred. Rhipsimè and Caiana were later beatified as saints in the Armenian church.