Next week the Armenian Church honors three saints: St. Hripsime, St. Gayane, and St. Gregory the Illuminator. The stories of these saints are intertwined, each telling a part of the larger tale about Armenia’s conversion to Christianity. Their stories remind us of the darkness that lives in the unrepentant human heart, but they also show us the way God can take human tragedy and death, and transform these into victory and life.
Hripsime and Gayane were nuns, who with their holy sisters had dedicated their lives to Christ. For this they were persecuted in the Roman Empire, and sought refuge in the kingdom of Armenia, ruled by the pagan King Drtad—where the holy sisters again faced torture, and eventually death.
In this storm of destruction, Drtad became something less than human. The historian Agathangelos tells us he became a wild beast, and no physician or pagan priest could heal the wretched king. It was only the Christian missionary St. Gregory—long imprisoned in a dungeon cell—who could restore Drtad through the power of God, thus bringing illumination to a king, his court, and an entire nation.
Accomplished in our Lord’s name, suffering is transformed into sacrifice, death becomes martyrdom. Whatever our fates may be in this life—loss, persecution, death—the final chapter is always written by God. It is God who takes the sacrifice and martyrdom, and turns them into something glorious, whether this means the conversion of an entire nation, or the inspiration of a single soul.
to read more about St. Hripsime, St. Gayane, and St. Gregory the Illuminator.
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