St. Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral in Yerevan

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

The first country in the world where Christianity was adopted at the state level is Armenia. Yerevan is the city where the largest cathedral was built. This is a tribute to the memory of Gregory the Illuminator, who spread the Christian religion in the state.

History of the Cathedral

The construction of the temple complex was consecrated by the Catholicos of Armenia Garegin I in 1997. It ended in 2001 on the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of the recognition of the Christian religion in the state. At the moment, the Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator is one of the most significant buildings in the capital. It contains relics associated with his name and kept for five centuries in one of the monasteries of Naples. They were handed over to the cathedral after its consecration.

This event happened in September 2001. The ceremony was conducted by Patriarch Alexy II. It was attended by the head of the Apostolic Armenian Church, Catalikos Garegin II, representatives of various religious denominations, as well as the PresidentRepublic of Robert Kocharyan. A week after the cathedral was consecrated, the Pope held a service in it. More than 30 thousand people gathered to listen to him.

The life of the famous educator

Gregory was born in 252 in the family of the Parathian Anak. At the instigation of the Persian king, Anak killed Khosrov, the ruler of Armenia. For this act, he and his family members were executed. The nurse managed to hide her youngest son and take her to her homeland in Caesarea. When the boy grew up, he was baptized, and he went to Rome to serve Tiridates, the son of the ruler Khosrov, in order to atone for his father's crime.

Armenia was the birthplace of Tiridates. Yerevan became the city to which he returned in 287 in order to regain the throne of his father. After that, he imprisoned Gregory in a dungeon, in which he spent almost 13 years. When he was released, he took up educational activities and cured Tiridates of a serious illness. In 301, the king was baptized and declared Christianity the state religion of Armenia.

In 302, the Enlightener Gregory was consecrated to the rank of bishop. After that, he built the temple of Etchmiadzin in honor of Jesus Christ in Vagharshapag. For the rest of his life he preached Christianity on the territory of Armenia and Georgia. In 325 he was invited to the First Ecumenical Council in Nike, but he sent his son to it. After his return, Gregory handed over the chair to him, and he himself lived in a hermitage until his death.

Architectural solution

The Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator was built according to the plan of the architect Stepan Kyurkchyan. The construction was funded by donations.respected families of Armenia. The temple was built in a strict ascetic style, typical for Armenian religious buildings. The building has an angular shape. It is decorated with niches, triangular arches and elongated stained-glass windows.

The temple complex includes the Cathedral, the Church of St. Tiridates and the Church of Queen Ashkhen. Each of them can accommodate 150 people. Their name is not accidental. After Christianity became the official religion of Armenia, King Tiridates III, together with Queen Ashkhen, helped Saint Gregory spread the faith throughout the state.

A plot of 3822 square meters has been allocated for the temple complex. meters. There are only three domes with strict crosses on the cathedral building. Bell towers are located next to the cathedral. The distance from the top of the highest cross to the ground is 54 meters. The cathedral is clearly visible from different parts of the city.

Interior of the Cathedral

The interior of the temple corresponds to the style adopted in the church architecture of Armenia. The Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator can accommodate 1700 people. The room is very spacious, it has benches for parishioners. The number of seats was not chosen by chance, it is tied to the anniversary of the establishment of Christianity in Armenia.

There is a lot of light in the temple. The iconostasis of the cathedral looks very modest. It is decorated with a small number of icons depicting saints. There are no art paintings and frescoes on the walls of the building. Despite this, the room looks majestic. The dome of the cathedral decoratesbig chandelier. The shrines of the Christian Armenian Church are kept in a special reliquary: particles of the relics of Gregory the Illuminator and some other relics associated with his name.

Return of the holy relics

When President Serzh Sargsyan was on a visit to Italy in April 2015, the sacred rarities of the Armenian Church - Gregory's skull in a gold case and a tibia - were transferred to the Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator (Yerevan). For five centuries, the relics were kept in the Armenian Church of Naples.

The history of the Armenian and Catholic churches is inextricably linked with the name of Gregory the Illuminator. After his death, he was buried in the same cave where he had lived in recent years, and later the ashes were transferred to his family estate. The Enlightener's grave has been a place of worship for Armenians for more than a thousand years. Many years later, fragments of the relics of Gregory were transferred to Constantinople, and then taken by the Armenian diaspora to Naples and kept in the Basilian monastery.

In honor of the return of the shrines to the Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator in the monastery of Naples, a mass was celebrated, which was attended by President Serzh Sargsyan, the Armenian Ambassador to His Holiness in the Vatican, the Archbishop of Naples and the mayor of the city, as well as other high-ranking representatives of Italy and Armenia.