Who was the first monarch we know of to embrace the Catholic Faith? Most Catholics would assume Constantine the Great (313-337), first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire whose conversion in 313 AD ended the Roman persecutions and paved the way for the Christianization of the empire. While Constantine was the first Christian emperor of Rome, there was in fact another Christian monarch who predated Constantine by a full generation: Tiridates III of Armenia.
In the late 3rd century, the kingdom of Armenia existed on the fringes of the Roman world, caught up in the perpetual territorial wranglings between Rome and the Sassadnid Persians to the east. The ruling dynasty—known as the Arascids—had to maintain a delicate balance between the two superpowers that surrounded them if their kingdom was to endure.
The Arascid monarch of Armenia in the late 200s was Tiridates III. Named for the Zoroastrian deity Tir, Tiridates was raised in a climate of court intrigue and murder. His father, King Khosrov II, was assassinated by a Sassanid agent when Tiridates was a boy. As the only heir to the throne, Tiridates was spirited away to Rome for safety while the Sassanids took control of his kingdom. Tiridates was educated in Rome, growing up among Rome’s elite and studying Roman law and military tactics.
In 270, the Roman emperor Aurelian made war on the Sassanids. Seeing his enemies weakened, Tiridates returned to Armenia, rallied his people, and drove out the Sassanids, reclaiming the throne in 298 after a long and bitter struggle. Tiridates entered into an alliance with the new Roman emperor, Diocletian, accepting status as an independent client-state of Rome. This solidified Armenia’s connections with the west while providing a formidable ally against the Sassanid Persians.
With the reign of Tiridates, many Armenian exiles returned to the kingdom to enter the new king’s service. One of these was a young secretary named Gregory. By a strange twist of providence, Gregory was the son of the Sassanid agent who had murdered Tiridates’ father. Gregory, too, had been raised in Rome, where he was exposed to Christianity and embraced the Catholic Faith. He returned to Armenia and entered the service of Tiridates as a means of atoning for the sins of his family. He kept his lineage secret from the king, however, fearing Tiridates’ reprisals if his identity were known.
While there was a strong Christian presence in Armenia at the time, most of the kingdom followed the Zoroastrian religion of Persia. One day, King Tiridates held a religious ceremony at which he commanded Gregory to place a wreath at the foot of a pagan statue. Gregory refused, proclaiming his faith in Christ. The king was infuriated at Gregory’s refusal, but to make matters worse, informers came forward identifying Gregory as the son of the man who had murdered the king’s father.
Tiridates ordered Gregory tortured and thrown into the horrific underground prison of Khor Vrop. Gregory spent thirteen years imprisoned in a subterranean chamber, kept alive only by the kindness of a woman who threw him a crust of bread now and then.
Around the year 300, a group of Christian nuns came to Armenia, fleeing the growing climate of persecution in Rome. Tiridates demanded one of the virgins be handed over to him as a bride but was rebuffed by the pious women. In his anger, Tiridates had the entire group of nuns tortured and executed. This act of sacrilegious cruelty did not go unpunished, and Tiridates was soon afflicted with a mental illness that made him lose his reason. According to tradition, he was reduced to a madman, wandering about the countryside like an animal.
At this point, the king’s sister, Khosrovidukht, had a dream about Gregory in which he was able to cure the king’s illness. She immediately sent servants to Khor Vrop to see if Gregory was still alive. They retrieved Gregory from the pit of his imprisonment, emaciated but still alive after thirteen years of imprisonment.
King Tiridates was brought to Gregory, who healed him in the name of Jesus Christ. His reason now restored, Tiridates fell at Gregory’s feet, repented of his wickedness, and professed the Christian Faith. Tiridates was baptized (the traditional date is 301) and immediately declared Christianity the official religion of Armenia. Gregory was consecrated bishop and made catholicos (patriarch) of the Church in Armenia.
Tiridates faced considerable opposition in his attempts to Christianize Armenia. The Zoroastrian nobles raised a revolt against him, attempting to dethrone Tiridates in what became a war for the soul of Armenia. Not much is known about this conflict, as records from the era are scarce, but Tiridates eventually prevailed, and Armenia moved definitively into the Christian camp. Gregory would be known to history as St. Gregory the Illuminator.
As for Tiridates, his victory did not come without a cost. The pagan Zoroastrians may have been defeated on the battlefield, but they resorted to other means of opposition. A conspiracy of pagan nobles poisoned Tiridates, leading to the king’s death in 330.
Even today, 1700 years later, Armenian Christians remember the story of St. Gregory and Tiridates and proudly claim the title of first country to embrace the Christian Faith.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
