The king however did not escape the Nemesis of his diabolical crime, the memory of the beautiful Rhipsimè haunted him; remorse took the place of the ferocious anger that had doomed his hapless victim to her cruel death and the king lost his reason. The king having become incapacitated, Gregory was released from his underground prison by the king’s sister Khosrovidookt, and as the malady of the king was mental, remorse for his own crime having overturned his reason, it became the peculiar office of Gregory to minister to the king, and by his spiritual ministrations to effect the restoration of the royal mind.
Terdat recovered his reason and as a broken-hearted penitent accepted the religion of Gregory and the beautiful Rhipsimè.
Gregory now freely preached Christianity in Armenia. It was a grand Revival; the temples of Anahid were turned into the churches of Christ, and the whole nation accepted Christianity, which became the established religion in the country.[18] The name of Gregory has been handed down to posterity as Soorb Gregore Loosavoritch (Saint Gregory the Illuminator). “Illuminator” is the generally accepted English translation of the Armenian term “Loosavoritch,” but it is true nevertheless that neither the term “Illuminator” nor “Enlightener” suitably conveys the definition of its meaning; sometimes modes of expression are so difficult to translate from one language into another, and it can be said that the term “Illuminator” is used for want of a better word in English. The Armenians call their religion “loois havat;” the word “loois” means “light” and “havat” means “faith” or “religion,” but if I translated the two words as “enlightened faith” or “enlightened religion” the translation would not suitably convey the meaning of the original.
THE CATHEDRAL OF ETCHMIATZIN.
(Only Begotten Descended).
Seat of the Supreme Patriarch. The foundation stone was laid by St. Gregory the Illuminator who built the Church in the third century of the Christian era.
The cathedral of Etchmiatzin is identified with Gregory; its name “Etchmiatzin” means in the Armenian language “the only begotten is descended,” and the story attached to it is, that in a vision Christ appeared to Gregory descended in light; Gregory built his church on the spot where the vision had appeared to him, giving it the name of “Etchmiatzin” (only begotten descended). The cathedral also gives its name to the town Etchmiatzin, the ecclesiastical metropolis of Armenia.
Since the time of Gregory, Christianity has been the national religion of the Armenians, and they have clung to their christian faith through unremitting persecutions and martyrdoms such as no other christian people have been called upon to endure.