This was the great creator of Armenian scholarship. He was a descendant
of St. Gregory; studied in the Greek schools of Caesarea during
boyhood; later in those of Constantinople, where he became famous for
learning, married a Greek princess of a distinguished house, and on
his return to Armenia was made pontiff. (All the clergy were married
then, as the Greek priests are now.) He founded over 2,000 schools,
and benevolent institutions, as well as great numbers of churches,
was a powerful and persuasive preacher, and a considerable writer,
part of the Church history being his. From these schools went forth
a very brilliant band of scholars, preachers and orators, the equals
of any in the world.
It was during his pontificate that the affairs of Arshag and Bab took
place, and he was intimately connected with them till his death at
the hands of the latter. Previous to the desertion of Armenia by the
Romans in 363, they had quarreled with Arshag, and sent an army to
punish him; but on Nierses' intercession with Valens it was recalled,
and the Saint obtained high favor with the emperor. Arshag's conduct,
however, grew too bad for endurance; he had his father and a relative
named Kuenel (or Gnel) killed, and married Kuenel's wife, Parantzem
(who afterwards met such a horrible fate), though his own wife,
Olympias, was still alive. Nierses, finding admonition of no avail,
quitted Vagharshabad and went into a convent. But Arshag, getting into
fresh difficulties with the emperor and his own rebellious vassals,
besought the saint to assist him once more, and once more Nierses
complied. He first pacified the turbulent nobility; then interceded
with the Roman commander to such effect that the general withdrew his
army and went to Constantinople to justify himself to the emperor,
taking a letter to him from Arshag, and hostages for the latter's
loyalty, and also inducing Nierses to accompany him. But Valens was
enraged at the withdrawal, would neither read the letter nor see the
saint, and ordered the hostages killed and Nierses banished. The former
sentence was revoked on the general's intercession, but Nierses was
shipped for his place of exile; on the way a storm wrecked the vessel
on a desert island, but he and the crew were saved. It was winter,
and they could find no food but the roots of trees, but in a short
time the sea miraculously cast abundance of fish on shore, and for
eight months they never suffered for sustenance. At the end of that
time the saint was set free.
After the restoration of Bab to the land, though not the acknowledged
throne of his fathers, Nierses convened an assembly of Armenian princes
and ecclesiastical heads, with the king, and swore them all to mutual
concord and good behavior, to unite the land against the Persians;
but Bab, like so many Eastern potentates and indeed his father, cared
for nothing but to indulge his own passions, and would have sold his
country to Shahpur if he could have got his price. Nierses in vain
tried to turn him from his evil ways; Bab merely hated him for it,
and finally had him poisoned, in the village of Khakh in the province
of Eghueghiatz. Nierses had been pontiff eight years, but they were
crowded with labors of immense variety and usefulness. He left one son
(Isaac), who eventually became pontiff also.