(1.) “when Saint Silvester was Pope at Rome.”—The Armenian Church
teaches that St. Thaddeus, one of the seventy-two disciples of our
Lord, and St. Bartholomew, one of the twelve apostles, were the first
to preach the gospel in Armenia; but the actual conversion of the
Armenians to Christianity was not effected until the reign of Tiridates
in the 4th century, by St. Gregory, thenceforth named Lousarovitch—the
Enlightener. He was the son of a prince of Parthia, the assassin of
Chosroes, king of Armenia, who, though not a kinsman of Gregory,
belonged to the race of the Arsacidæ of Parthian origin; St. Gregory’s
own ancestors, the Surenians, being also a branch of the same royal
race. St. Gregory was, therefore, indeed a kinsman of Tiridates, who
was the son of Chosroes.
[2] “this same king who built the large church at Bethleen, as has been
already stated.”—It is singular that Bethlehem is not mentioned at all
in the chapter devoted to a description of the holy places, so that it
is just possible the Nuremberg MS. is a copy of the MS. at Heidelberg,
in which that city is not named. Opinions are greatly divided upon
this statement of Schiltberger. In a communication from Bishop
Aïvazoffsky, I am assured that no church whatever was constructed prior
to the king’s conversion; but it is stated in an apocryphal writing,
that Tiridates caused a church to be built at Jerusalem after his
conversion. On the other hand, Vaillant de Florival (_Dictionnaire
Historique_, sub vocem, Dertad) inserts that, after his conversion, the
king ordered the construction of many churches, one being at Bethlehem,
and dedicated to the nativity of Christ.—BRUUN.
(3.) “The king again became a man, and was, with all his people, again
a Christian.”—This tradition in regard to Tiridates and St. Gregory
is told with considerable accuracy. Armenian chroniclers relate that
Gregory, having refused to worship the idol set up by the king, was by
his orders taken to the fortress in the town of Ardashat, and there
thrown into a stinking pit, to be consumed, as we read in the text,
by serpents and other reptiles, but where he nevertheless remained
miraculously preserved from all harm during the space of fourteen, or,
according to others, fifteen years. The place situated in the valley of
the Araxes, is now called Khorvyrab—Dry well—the site of a monastery in
which is shown the saint’s dungeon.
Rhipsime, not Susanna, was the name of the beautiful maiden the
king sought to corrupt. She was a devout woman who had fled the
importunities of Diocletian, and with Guiane and many other saintly
persons of her sex, was put to a cruel death by Tiridates. The story
goes on to say that, for these persecutions of Christians, Tiridates
was smitten by the Lord, thereby losing his reason and becoming like
a wild beast; but his favourite sister, Khosroivitouhdt, having had a
vision, caused Gregory to be summoned out of the pit. That holy man
restored reason to the king, who thereupon, with all his subjects,
became converted to Christianity (_The Crimea and Transc._, i, 236,
243).—ED.
(4.) “the King Derthat and the man Gregory.”—Tiridates was never
at Babylon, nor was any Infidel people ever converted by him to
Christianity (Bishop Aïvazoffsky); but it should be borne in mind that
although the Chaldæans and Nestorians of Kourdistan have nothing in
common with the Armenians, they hold St. Gregory in great veneration,
as he was sent by Tiridates to Cæsarea in Cappadocia to receive
consecration at the hands of St. Leontius, the metropolitan of that
country. Schiltberger would have done better to express himself to this
effect, instead of saying that St. Gregory was placed at the head of
the church by the king.—BRUUN.