A Word about Saint Gregory the Great, the Illuminator, the High Priest of our God.

Just as the various flowers that are decorated with multi-colored leaves in the depths of spring are varied, so the praise of men equipped with divine gifts is varied and abundant, which is not enough only to recognize with the eyes and notice with the mind - since the mind notices for this purpose and the tongue tells, in order to at the same time generously distribute to as many as possible. So, entering the flower-bearing field of virtue of the brave and executed martyr, the shining sun and high priest, the enlightener of great Armenia, stretching the eyes of the mind to the flower-bearer, sparkling with beauty, I don’t know if I’m able to grasp what I could trace in cleverly distributed praise; I have a desire to collect everything, but I’m afraid that a lot will elude me. It seems to me that that blessed one is deservedly like a bee, equipped with light wings. And, indeed, just as the work of the bee is worthy of wonder, so the virtues of St. Gregory captivate souls; just as no one is able to comprehend (her) in word or mind, in her amazing work, so no one is able to express in praise the outstanding talents of this saint. Just as a bee, although it circles on its own among all the flowers in order to get around them, however, cannot carry away all their juice due to the tenderness of its strength, and for this it takes with it what is translucent in the middle of the flowers and very thin, in order to collect (it) with its wings and make a honeycomb from here, so I will collect in my mind and offer in words what I can embrace, in order to refresh with a pleasant smell the sense of smell of those who are performing the sacred sacrament and who are eager to listen. praise to Saint Gregory. What shall I call this high priest, if not the sun rising in the eastern regions, the brilliance of whose rays has reached the Greek people? Oh, miracle! If someone wanted to (have) a garden planted with plants, then, first of all, thorns are cut out, harmful roots are pulled out, and that garden is planted without any difficulty; but the garden of the great martyr and high priest who suffered the execution grew in the midst of thorns, reached to the sky and produced angelic flowers, the leaves of which sparkled with wonderful colors; not by cutting and erupting thorns, thistles and other root harmful herbs, but by changing them into fragrant flowers and fruit trees - he made the thorns bear fragrant fruits, gave thistles to produce roses and flowers with a wonderful fragrant smell. I proclaim happy Hripsimia and Gaiania - they, having accepted the root, from where shoots arose and spread far and wide, came to great Armenia, of which not the slightest corner was deprived of the cover of those branches 2. Oh, miracle! The corporeal man is like the incorporeal hosts; even, if I may say so, preferable to angelic spirits, since neither their body nor their members are subject to torment and pain, but he took upon himself the pain and torment that he endured, as if those that were not part of the body. In addition, there are many other virtues of this kind. I would dare to say that he is like Peter and Paul. Just as they, through great efforts and great virtue, returned the western regions from idolatry to the path that leads to the knowledge of God, so Blessed Gregory enlightened the eastern countries with his preaching. He taught them that they must honor the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that the Word, inseparable from the Father, received a body from the Virgin, that the perfect God became a perfect man and through birth received a body, immaculate and not involved in disease. The Word of God, he said, which is beyond eloquence, united with the body, lived among people, and through baptism abolished the circumcision to which It had undergone. He was given up for us, who was inseparable from the bosom of the Father; The Word was lifted up on the cross and died according to human nature, but remained and remains immortal, according to the divinity that was in Him. Since from a dual nature He became one Christ, therefore He suffered death in a body that was united with the deity. The flesh that suffered the torment was God, and there was an immortal deity who clothed himself in the body. Divinity made flesh God, and it was united with the Word so evenly and directly that what died and was buried for us also rose again according to divinity and overthrew the underworld. Know this, worship this, since this, united with the Word, is God above all. This is the teaching he taught to that proud and distinguished people. He gave away the talents entrusted to him, multiplied, returning not two for one, or four for two, or ten for five, but he acquired myriads of talents, and therefore he heard from the Lord these words: “Well done, good and faithful servant! Since you have been faithful in small things until now, I will put you over many things; enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23). I adorn this blessed one with the name of the apostle, because he, like the other apostles, preached the true God, destroyed idols and idolatrous churches, taught to worship the God of heaven and, after destroying the superstitious worship of creation, established the veneration of the creator of creation. He taught with ardent zeal the Scriptures inspired from above; wrote conversations full of wisdom and taught many nations. For Gregory I have the name of the new Daniel. Just as the holy prophet suffered punishment from the Babylonian king, and was driven away to graze in deserted places, like a bull and under the image of a bull, so the prayers of Gregory returned Tiridates, disobedient to the truth, clothed in the image of a boar, into a human image. Truly, he had faith, strengthened by hope, and whole, like a grain of mustard, in which, through spoilage, a worm cannot arise, nor can the quality of the grain be reduced; truly, he had faith so strong that he firmly hoped that whatever he asked God would happen; and if he had said to the mountain: move there, he would have considered it true that it should undoubtedly be transferred. Therefore, it cannot be that he does not believe that a person clothed in the image of a wild boar can be returned to his former image. But I greatly respect this wonderful man, and of my own free will I strive for his praise; I am afraid, of course, that my word will be unequal to the praise of such a husband, but I do not deviate from my intention: I hope that the weakness of my strength will be overcome by the courage of my spirit. So, I will offer what I can learn from what the right hand of God has revealed. Oh, a new portent! The sun, enclosed by God in the vast sky, sends rays from above to the earth; truly, this holy man extended his rays to the top of heaven, from the deep ditch in which he was kept. The angels and archangels, listening, declared him blessed, and served him as he lay in the ditch. They saw his body in the reservoir, but his holiness shone in heaven; body in heaven, angel on earth; having a body, he seemed without a body; a heavenly man, an earthly angel, a pillar of fire from heaven, whose head touched the earth - the enlightener of Armenia, the unshakable foundation of the Greeks (Little Armenia), the apostle of Christ, foretelling the way for people. First of all, I call you blessed, O Caesarea of ​​Cappadocia, since the shepherd of many nations received the laying on of hands from you. The initiate and the initiate then shone with the same brilliance of virtue. These (Capadocians) were already founded on strong roots; and only he had his own root, from where others, not involved in the root, received theirs. Many fruits were gathered there by workers who cultivated what was once uncultivated; only he himself, the worker, holding the handle of the plow with one hand, (with the other) softened many uncultivated lands with the word of truth. When he opened countless furrows with one coulter, he received back five seeds and many fruits; and, holding the divine seed in a handful, he sowed very many fields, scattering endless grains with his fingers. Then, in the furrows cut by one hand, the fruits sown by the other hand grew at the same time. There one could see autumn and spring, harvest and threshing time; and when winter approached, he sowed a single seed, namely the word of God. But, noticing the various fruits that were born from here, during the harvest, he collected on the threshing floor, sometimes ripe (fruits), sometimes fat from ripeness, threshed, peeled with a winnower and put them in heaps, so that they could be taken from here to the granaries of the world. What does it mean that winter (Armenia) plunged the sower himself between poisonous reptiles, taking from the colored seeds of faith, which he did not allow to grow due to the ice of unbelief? People who had common speech and face with that saint were clothed in the manners of snakes; and, on the contrary, the deadly and poisonous dragons adopted the morals of meek people, and served him, licking the saint’s feet with the same mouth with which they brought death. What's next? The time of winter dragged on for a long time, and the Armenians thought that the sower had perished, like a seed that was sown during the cruel ice. A ditch opens: they were looking for disfigured parts of a person, but they hear the harmonious singing of many voices; They were afraid that a nasty smell from dragons and snakes would enter their nostrils, but a pleasant smell emanates from here, like from a garden of pleasure; They looked with their eyes for bones that had undergone rotting, but in his face they contemplated the shining sun; they counted on a lifeless man in a ditch, but they see him walking as if in the most holy church; they were looking for parts (of the body) emaciated by hunger, but they noticed healthy and well-fed with heavenly food; they were looking for a body crushed by the teeth of dragons, but they are surprised at the snakes they tamed - the despisers see that they are despised by the one they despised. Struck by shame, they blushed, and, overcome with horror, exclaimed: Great is God, Whom the great Gregory preaches. Our weapons are weakened by those that we thought were weakened by poisonous dragons. If there were no dragons, the body would be exhausted only through one hunger, (a body) that no mortal could remove from here. Truly, God is marvelous in His saints, they said, according to the thought of the prophet David; He glorifies His glorifiers. They were extremely ashamed of their offense, and said: this one, plunged by us into a ditch and darkness, like the sun shone for us, who were, truly, sons of darkness, and, leading us out of darkness, made us sons of light. He was taught by the great shepherd of the sheep who prayed for the torturers; we were his torturers when he was thrown into the ditch; but he, the shining enlightener, clothed us in the robe of light, and wonderfully directed our feet onto the path of peace. We were his executioners, and he was a caring shepherd for us; he is a merciful father, we are sons disobedient to our father, even parricides; he was surrounded by a divine rampart to drive away the devastating wolf from the sheepfold with a sling, and we, wandering, followed the destroyer - the wolf, whom he wounded, overthrew and destroyed forever; He is the best shepherd, we are the disobedient flock that leaves the stable; he is a doctor, and we, the sick, rushed towards the one who healed us, in order to kill the body for now, since it is impossible (to kill) him who is immortal in his soul. He preceded us and plucked up thorns on the path that leads to the knowledge of God, and we, blind and careless, fell into the ditch of destruction, and, deprived of both eyes, struck and threw our shepherd into a deep ditch, and did not understand anything, remaining in our blindness. He was a shining lamp, and we, sitting in the darkness, did not follow the bright shine of his traces; he was a slave of God, and what we called gods was a creature of a slave of people; therefore, he, the servant of God, rejected the gods whom we revered. Our hearts were blinded and we did not understand, since we grabbed him and threw him into a deep abyss; and now we see that the depths of the earth contain the sun that shone for us. We thought that the body of our caring teacher would be the prey of beasts, but we see that it is served by snakes and dragons, like (the body of) the newly created Adam, to whom, before the first crime, snakes and basilisks had no power to harm; and we, who have followed the double-mindedness of hell, are despised by the beasts. We gave the dragons power against the leader of our faith, but we see their strength weakened: they, like doves, quietly complained, and with their tongues, which were given the power to plot against the heel of the double-mindedness of hell, they caressed the innocent disciple of Christ. Therefore, what do we say? Or how dare we open our eyes to look and look at our merciful father, to beg his forgiveness - we, in our rage, have inflicted countless insults on him? But since there was no enmity in his heart, we will trust (him), we will resort to the mouth of the ditch, and here we will say: go out, servant of God, subjugate your slaves, taking over the power against you from the one whom you crushed in the abyss when you descended into the deep ditch - and, as you were instructed by your Teacher, do the same with your disciples. Good teacher, come to Armenia, to us, who have seen the Babylonian (case) a second time. Since, instead of a furnace, we kindled a ditch into which we let in poisonous dragons, instead of a burning fire, your virtues dried up their poison, in the image of dew; You stepped into the deadly flames of snakes and basilisks, trampled underfoot fire-breathing dragons, and again seemed like Ananias, Azariah and Misail, when you honored the inseparable Trinity, Which we did not believe. Now, with the king of the Babylonians, Nebuchadnezzar, we believe and glorify, as we notice the divine dew in the middle of the oven. Come out, servant of the heavenly God; through you we have believed and confess the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; come out of your den, and glorify Him who glorified him who glorified Him, and brought you the greatest honor. Raise your divine voice, and say: Honor God, whom I have freely preached; He is the creator of everything, who kept me unharmed from the destructive dragons. Come out, new Daniel, and show yourself innocent to the king of Babylon, that is, Armenia - you, who were thrown into a reservoir, not between two lions, but, what is more, between the most ferocious monsters. Whatever beast crushes parts (of the body), it may happen that someone will someday return to health; but poisonous and destructive dragons do not crush bodies or maim, but bring invisible death with a prick, like some kind of needle. You came out unharmed, and you will not be destroyed by them. This is all that, perhaps, it was natural for them to say to the saint; and we will continue the praise, talking about the reason for his torment. King Tiridates was furious at the killing of his parent, and therefore tormented Gregory with the most severe tortures and tortures, beatings and iron combs, squeezing the body between stakes, and every kind of terrible torment that rage invented. The holy martyr, voluntarily enduring them, out of love for our Lord, Jesus Christ, said this to the executioners: I am tortured by torments and tortures from you, who have loved the flesh and who rule in this life, which is like a dream, will disappear tomorrow - (from you), who refuse the hope of immortal life; but I suffer temporarily for the sake of Him who endured torture for me; Moreover, immortal life has been discovered, and pleasure is greater than (the pleasure of) paradise, breathing pleasant smells; I will go there and become his heir forever. Filled with joy, I consider the torment that you cause me to be a blessing, thinking that it harms me. No matter how much you torment my limbs and bones with instant pain, between the stakes, however, I will emerge from here as a healthy ear, and I will rise before my Creator, like a palm tree resting on strong roots, with many long and wide branches, beautiful with leaves, graceful with flowers that will never have to wither, and I will joyfully shine green and thick in the garden planted by the hand of God. Although I will be cruelly hanged upside down by the instruments of torment, and will be crushed between the stakes, however, I trust in the future that I will raise my head to the sky, before my Creator, after an insignificant interval of pain. Although I will be thrown to beasts and bears as instruments of torment, and my body will be destroyed by them, I have confidence that they have woven for me a golden diadem and an adorned crown, which the heavenly King will place on my head when he allows me to sit above the bride’s chamber. Whatever it may be, this blood flowing from my body dyes my robe of immortality crimson and scarlet - (a robe) that will not fade forever. This is all that was proper for a martyr to answer. What after? Tiridates, no matter how long he held the bound and tortured Gregory, was not yet satisfied with his cruelty, and spoke as if his torment had a connection with what happened before: indeed, he is the son of Ananus, from the clan of the Parthians, who killed my father, Chozroes. And Tiridates commands to take Gregory, bound at the feet and bound at the hands and neck, to the fortress of the Ararat province 3 and there throw him into a deep ditch. Oh, madman, perhaps Saint Gregory said, if my father attacked your wicked father with a sword, he was not only killed, and left the transient that he considered life, but even his soul was also subjected to torment in which he will not die. You, son of a wicked parent, when you subjected me to punishment in vengeance for your father, did not defeat me with your torments, since it was necessary for my body to remain unharmed; but I tormented your soul along with your body with invisible torment, so that you, crushed at last, would worship my God. You command that I be tormented before your eyes; but you yourself are tormented, in my presence or absence, and do not understand that my King is demanding retribution from you in this way, and He is preparing for you that tormentor forever, whom you consider to be your friend. The blessed one had this and many other things that he could say to the King. From here we need to rush to the treasure ditch to see what miracles are performed there. They throw him into a ditch, which was a den of snakes. But what did the treasure trove say? Blessed is your coming, oh wondrous father! They prepared from me a deep ditch of torment, like a dark abyss, but your creator makes me become a garden strewn with flowers for you. I was a dwelling of darkness, but now for you I have been made a church of light. By name I am called the deep abyss, but in reality I touch, elevated by you, the highest sky, and within myself I contain the bright sun that has rolled down from the sky, which illuminates the Armenian people. Many who were thrown into me were destroyed by the vile smell of dirt, and I crushed their flesh and bones with slow hunger; I emitted a disgusting and unbearable smell, and made it difficult for them to smell; but through you I now seem to be a garden, decorated with flowers, and pleasant rose bushes with flowers that breathe a variety of fragrant scents. What can I say about the dragons that lived there, fatal due to poison? As soon as they saw Saint Gregory thrown into the ditch, they look for their usual first natural property in themselves, pay attention to the seraphim who carried him on their wings so that there would be no danger for him - they are surprised, struck by fear, and say: we are the offspring of that serpent who deceived Eve through the fruit he ate, and made her an exile and cast out from the paradise of pleasure; and you are the seed of Adam and the descendant of Eve, who received that curse, according to which the earth would produce thorns and thistles - you are commanded to watch our head, and we are told to watch your heel. So, according to that commandment, we jumped to satiate our hatred of you, endowed by nature; but when they noticed the disembodied army near your body, and saw you placed between the angelic choirs, then our attack was weakened, since our stings were dulled; and just as wax melts from the face of fire, so our teeth with their poison are melted by your divine face. Our poison, which caused inflamed tumors on the external body, was extinguished by the source of your prayers flowing from God, and became numb like cold water; but much less will we flee from your presence; we have come to serve the one who has tamed the ferocity of our nature, which we have forgotten, and we will, like doves, and in silence, be in your house, not afraid of your face sparkling like a flame. I am very surprised that Gregory lived there for fourteen years. But let us hasten to what happened after so many years. When the king (Tiridat) appointed the hour to hunt the animals, and was already boarding the cart to leave the city, 4 the scourge of divine wrath, sent down from above, fell upon him. Admired by the demon himself, he rushes headlong from the cart and begins to tear (his) body in rage. He, as if the second king of the Babylonians, Nebuchadnezzar, in oblivion of human nature, rotated like a boar among boars, and from that time on he ate greens. These are the miracles that happened then. What should the king have said? O king! You made fun of the servant of God, following in the footsteps of Satan; therefore he, whom you served, torments and torments you, at the command of the true God, revered by the great Gregory. For you, the body of the blessed one, whom, after torment, you threw into prison and a deep ditch, became insignificant; and therefore you see your body changed into the body of a boar. Since you have lost your mind so wickedly that you went against the true God when you tortured your faithful slave, then you are also allowed to take care of yourself according to your heaviest blow, and so that, due to the image of the boar in which you are clothed, you will trample underfoot Satan, who trampled you, after you have replaced your bristly covering with the skin of Adam. Since you delivered the poison of slander to that saint with your quick tongue, therefore speak with your bestial tongue: I have sinned before the Lord. Since you raised your proud head against the holy martyr, lower your vile boar's head, which happily rolls around in the stinking mud. Since you arbitrarily tortured him with various tortures, and ordered him to bind the hands, feet and neck of your master and your teacher, therefore fold your hands, changing them into the front legs of a boar, to lie near the feet of that martyr. Let it not be hidden from you, who have lost the use of reason, that for fifteen years now the buried one, whom you considered, while you were involved in reason, to be dead, whose only bones have survived, has been enjoying life. But since, while you appeared under a human image, you quickly plunged it into a deadly ditch, therefore rush in the form of a boar to the mouth of the ditch, cry out to the one you considered destroyed, to your doctor, so that he himself will restore you to your former body. And since, sitting on a cart, you despised Gregory, sheltered by God himself, go, run, gallop on four legs, in the image of a boar, to the mouth of the ditch, and cry there: come out, servant of the highest God! This is what was necessary, or decent, to say at that time; but notice what actually happened next. The king's sister 5, strengthened by a heavenly vision, heard these or similar words: doctors of men, you are trying in vain; It is not your skill to find a cure for an incurable disease; help will only be delivered by Gregory the Great, who was sent from God to you as a doctor, and to whom you offered to drink the cup of death; I am the God of my servant Gregory, whom you sentenced to death for the multitude of your gods. I will make him a physician for you, who will heal you, and with his help, the disasters you deserve will be left behind. But, behold, a surprised woman named Khozrovidukhit told, as quickly as possible, the vision that she had: I saw, she said, a man shining with light, who appeared to me in a vision, and said so: there is no other remedy for the disasters that have befallen you, than for you to go to Artaxata, and there bring the bound Gregory out of a deep ditch; he will come and bring you a saving remedy. But people, when they heard her, laughed and mocked her. What are you saying? they said; the demon really incited you, and therefore you became insane. How can it be that someone whose very bones have rotted can speak or discover a remedy for healing? How could he get out of the abyss of the ditch? Not only could he avoid the sting of the snakes, but he could not even escape from the sight of them. He was immediately killed, at the same hour at which he was thrown into the ditch - and we are convinced that at the end of fifteen years his bones not only rotted, but turned to dust. Go away, don’t tell anyone, so that your speech does not excite laughter. What then? She believed their words, went home and became silent. Since for a long time the widow did not bother to deliver the bread that she was ordered to - throw it into the ditch every day 6. Scarcely had a few days passed when, not once or twice, but five times a vision appeared to her, and the angel said in a great and menacing voice: if you do not declare, as quickly as possible, do not be afraid that they will receive you with ridicule, and do not consider it impossible that he remained alive for fifteen years, an angel of God was sent to serve him. I accepted the bread, which, like Elijah, was delivered to Gregory - to him in the desert, to this one who had virtue in himself instead of the bright sun, in the abyss of the earth. You doubted what I told you before, due to the unfaithfulness of people, but now believe my words; With God nothing is impossible. Have you not been taught how Daniel was delivered from the cisterns and from the lions who were raging with hunger? Or how did the three youths remain unharmed in the burning flame, the height of which marked the saints forty-nine days of fasting? Do you really not know how, through Ezekiel, who kept the divine commandments, dry bones, at the command of God, were set in motion on the field by the winds of four countries, and approached one another, not by chance, but each in its own connection? The veins and skin stretched over them, breathing into these dead (veins and skin) the spirit of life: “they stood on their feet - a very, very great army” (Ezek. 37:8, 10). He is still God, whom Gregory preaches, and who is able to keep him in the trench. And you believe my words and announce them to the people. The woman, struck by surprise and at the same time by fear, hastily entered and told the leaders, who invited the head of the royal house, and immediately sent (him) to Artaxata. Go, they say, and beg that very man of God, whom we did not consider a man; go, ask for a doctor whose words we did not listen to, hurry, call the one who will call us from the belly of hell; hurry and humbly ask the one whom we dragged with dishonor, so that he forgives his persecutors. They had it all, or maybe even more than that, what they were saying. The head of the royal house set off, and when he came to the city, the citizens tried to find out from him the reason for the journey; When she was recognized, they reasoned among themselves with surprise and amazement: how could it be, they said, that he was looking for someone alive whose bones had been destroyed by corruption, fifteen years since then? How do you ask about an unharmed body, which, being destroyed, became dung in the entrails of dragons, and turned to dust? How do they seek healing from a body returned to the earth, which could not bring salvation to itself? What else? Thick, long and strong ropes are prepared and lowered into the ditch. The ruler of the royal house calls with a great voice: come out, servant of God, and free us from the hands of the gods whom we worship; come out, son of light, and take us out of darkness; come out of the depths of the abyss, sun, and provide us with greater light than the sun that revolves above the air; it brings light to the eyes of the body, and you pour light into the eyes of our souls, and lead (us) to the right earth, which is an unceasing and unapproachable light. That's what the boss said. But at the same time, as they noticed from the lowering of the ropes that the saint sat down on the ropes, they take him out. Then he appeared as the sun, covered with clouds, since his body was black, like dark soot; and from here they understood that (this) was the body that endured torment, and with which he suffered and shone, as if without a body. Then they dress him with the clothes they brought. Then the people marveled, in amazement, at the one for whom it was necessary and proper to exclaim with the wise: “Then the righteous will stand with great boldness” before those who struck him and who “despised his exploits; when they see it, they will be embarrassed with great fear and will be amazed at the surprise of his salvation” (Wis. 5:1-2). But we will follow with a syllable of praise what happened next in a row. The king and everyone who was with him, delighted, came out to meet the ditch emerging from the ditch, naked and disfigured, and waited, standing far from the city. But when they saw him coming from afar, they began to rage at their flesh, exclaim and say: come, angel who dwells in the body, and with the help of your light drive out the friends of darkness who are persecuting us; come, waster of those who rule over us, and who grieved our proud hearts, so that we torment the one who tormented them; come, you visible body, to drive away the invisible darkness of our minds; come, you, clothed in leather and material clothing, to pursue our immaterial and incorporeal enemies who are pursuing us; come, O sun, and dry up the abundant stream of our wickedness with your ardent heat. Use the fire of your divine teaching, which will return us to the heat, immersed in a swamp thickened with frost. Come, divine river, and irrigate our barren fields, so that, turning green, the withered seed that has sunk into us from you will bloom again. Reap with your divine sickle the crops that, thanks to you, have begun to ripen; Thrash with the bulls that are your sons, or with the whip that is your tongue; and run them through with your same tongue; collect them with your divine hand into heaps, which you will also take to the divine granaries. Come, you sent from heaven, and burn with the shining coals of your teaching the needles of thistles that have strangled the seed of your labors. Come out, servant of God, from the deep ditch, spreading the light of your teaching from the abyss upward; come out and stir up the quietly breathing south wind on the hellish ice. You are already allowed to cultivate the land with the divine plow, which we did not allow to be cultivated before, especially when we mercilessly plunged the bright sun into darkness, as if into a prison. Of course, I am no longer able to express in a word of praise the praise of the blessed one for his merits, although this is what is most desirable for me. So, I will say, as briefly as possible, what really followed with him. The Creator said this to His faithful servant: well, good and faithful servant, do not worry at all about throwing your seed into the ground; You, the second Paul, planted, but I give growth. Come, enter into the joy of your Lord. Do not be afraid, second Moses, that only now the nations have believed you, because you loved Me more than your body. Come, rest from your labors, new Daniel; enter into the bridal chamber which I promised you before. Come, take the seat between the apostles, second apostle, who proclaimed the word of truth to the proud people; you will be placed in the host of angels - you, who competed with their lives on earth. Come and be chief with the patriarchs; You will be planted like a palm tree in the holy house of the Lord, and you will bloom in the entrance to God. Come, you will be crowned with the martyrs, and you will rejoice with those who endured torment for Me; come to the palace of My marriage. Come, you will rejoice with joy in the host of monks - you, who not only loved the mountains and deserts, but were even constantly nailed to the cross with Me; therefore I will send hosts of My angels to you, and I will take you to Myself. And since you constantly carried your cross and followed Me, I will lead you into paradise, into which the thief entered through his cross. Blessed are you, holy father, among the patriarchs of the Church. Once an angel in a body, now you rotate incorporeally among incorporeals. Blessed are you, the best ruler, who found the lost sheep of your King and those who were outside the stable - brought them and gathered them in front of Him. Blessed are you, who stopped the removal (of sheep) by wolves, and destroyed the murderous beasts, who, by the power of that very stone, cut off from the mountain without hands (Dan. 2:34), surrounded the sheepfold of his flock with a wall and girded it with a fence of divine commandments, and who made the sheep of his King multiply. Blessed are you, who are called by the name of the Apostle, because you preached the Gospel of the Son of God, and in the mystery of the Incarnation you taught a people alien (to Christ), who, through your teaching, worshiped the indivisible Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and one Divinity. Blessed are you, faithful martyr of Christ, who testified, like Peter, about Him, affirming that He is the Son of the living God, inseparable from the bosom of the Father; blessed are you, who took upon yourself torment for the One who endured torture for you; Blessed are you, finally, who lived patiently in the ditch for fifteen years. I also exalt with praise the Holy Spirit, about whom you preached that He is the same being with the Father and the Son; To him be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. This word is known from three Armenian preaching collections (A, B, C), so called. “D” – jarrintir, one of which dates back to the 10th – 11th centuries. (B), the other - by the beginning of the 15th century. (C) and the third - by the beginning of the 16th century. (A). We have a heading in C (like Minya); in A and B it is more detailed and gives a little history of this word. So in A it reads: “The word of John Chrysostom about the life and torment of Saint Gregory, Patriarch of Great Armenia, spoken in Kokiza, which is an Armenian city (he was an exile there, at the prompting of a certain Armenian bishop and teacher, who was a relative of Saint Gregory and was called Dioscorus, and at the insistence of a large meeting that was gathered in Kokiza on the feast day of the saint Enlightener of Eastern Countries." Min's Latin translation is from 1735; from it we give the Russian. Perhaps the saint said something similar, but this something is now distorted by notes from the life of St. Gregory. This Word is not without its interest if essential facts from the life of St. are connected with it. Gregory. We take them from the "Minea" Met. Demetrius of Rostov, specifically for “September” (published in Kyiv 1837, 30th). St. Gregory was the son of Anak, a nobleman under the Persian king Artaban. This king was killed by the usurper of the throne, Artasir. Then Kursar (father of Tiridates), the Armenian king, avenging the death of Artaban, brought Artasir to the extreme, from which Anak saved him. He, pretending to be an exile, killed the Cursar. There was a complete extermination of the offspring from both sides. Of the descendants of Anak, only two infants survived, one of whom was later the Christian Gregory, who lived for some time in the city of Caesarea in Cappadocia, got married there and became a widower. Of the Cursar's descendants, the young Tiridates was spared and sent to Rome. Subsequently, in Roman service, Tiridates remarkably distinguished himself in the war against the Goths, and received the Armenian throne as a reward; Gregory turned out to be a nobleman with him. Tiridates the pagan spent a long time trying to persuade Gregory the Christian to renounce Christianity, but to no avail. Gregory's terrible torment followed, ending with his being thrown into a ditch where criminals were thrown. There, Gregory’s life was supported by one widow, who threw a piece of bread into the ditch every day. Meanwhile, at this time, the Roman king Diocletian was looking for the first beauty throughout his kingdom as his wife. Such was the wondrous beauty of Ripsimiya, a Christian virgin, who lived with others like her (about 37 people), under the leadership of Gaiania. They all fled to Armenia. Diocletian instructed Tiridates to find Ripsimia and take advantage of her. The sisters were found and, after the unyielding perseverance of Hripsimia, they were all terribly tortured. But after this atrocity, King Tiridates and his accomplices fell into some strange madness, and ran through the forests like animals. As a result of a vision to the sister of Tiridates, Gregory was removed from the ditch, healed the mad, and also glorified the innocent sufferers. Finally, Tiridates became a Christian, and Gregory was sent to Caesarea in Cappadocia to the archbishop. Leontius, so that Leontius would consecrate Gregory as a bishop. Gregory was bishop over Armenia until 331. To the fortress “Artaxatu”, located 30 leagues to the east from the capital “Vaqhrarchabat” (about 12 versts, since “lieue” “leuca” is 1500 Roman steps. See note in Minya. Then the capital of Armenia was "Vaghrarchabat"; now partly on its ruins is “Etchmiadzin”. Note at Ming's. Her name: “Khosrovidoukhit”; observed virginity and was a Christian. Note at Ming's. There is obviously incomplete or corrupted text here. You might be interested in: