Khosrovidukht (sister of Tiridates III of Armenia)

Khosrovidukht (sister of Tiridates III of Armenia)
Khosrovidukht also transliterated Xosroviduxt (flourished second half of 3rd century & first half of 4th century) was a princess of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia, one of the client-kingdoms of the Roman Empire and a branch of the Arsacid dynasty of Parthia.
Khosrovidukht was the daughter of King Khosrov II of Armenia by an unnamed mother and her known sibling was her brother Tiridates III of Armenia who ruled Armenia from 287 to 330. The name Khosrovidukht was a dynastic name in the Arsacid royal house as she was the namesake of her father and her paternal great-grandfather Khosrov I, a previous ruling Armenian King.
Name
The name "Khosrov" (Xosrov) is from the Parthian, and Armenian dukht (daughter).
Biography
In 252 her father and the rest of her family were assassinated by Anak a Parthian agent, on the orders of Ardashir I. After the capture and execution of Anak, the Roman authorities took her infant brother to be raised in Rome, while Khosrovidukht was raised in Caesarea Mazaca, Cappadocia.
Her foster parents were Awtay, a nobleman from the Amatuni family, and his wife from the Slkunik family.
Khosrovidukht returned after Tiridates was restored to the Armenian throne by Diocletian in 287. The Armenian state religion at the time was Zoroastrianism. Armenian Christian legend says that after Tiridates killed a group of Christians, the Hripsimeyan nuns, and sent another Christian, Gregory the Illuminator to the Khor Virap dungeon, he became mentally ill.
Khosrovidukht had a dream telling her to free Gregory.
Agathangelo's History of the Armenians, p.221</ref>
The legend continues that when Khosrovidukht told her brother Tiridates he ordered Gregory released.<
Khosrovidukht and her sister-in-law Ashkhen may have already accepted Christianity through the Hripsimeyan nuns and others in the Armenian Christian underground. cured of his illness in 301. Tiridates then proclaimed Christianity as Armenia's official state religion, making Armenia the first country in the world to do so. and Gregory was appointed Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church
and baptised Tiridates's family, court and army on the Euphrates river.
Khosrovidukht may have died around 330. Tiridates, Khosrovidukht and Ashkhen participated in the construction of the Etchmiadzin Cathedral, Saint Gayane Church, Saint Hripsime Church and the Shoghakat Church. During the construction of Saint Gayane and Saint Hripsime Churches, Ashkhen and Khosrovidukht donated their jewels for the expenses for the church.
Towards the end of her life, Khosrovidukht and Ashkhen retired to the castle of Garni. She, Tiridates and Ashkhen are saints in the Armenian Apostolic Church and their feast day is on Saturday after the fifth Sunday after Pentecost.
References
Sources
Armenian Names – Female:Khosrovidkht
Moslem architecture: its origins and development, by G.T. Riviora, translated from the Italian by G.M.C.N. Rushforth Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1918
R.W. Thomson, Agathangelos's History of the Armenians, SUNY Press, 1976
B. Eghiayean, Heroes of Hayastan: a dramatic novel history of Armenia, Armenian National Fund, 1993
M.H. Dodgeon & S.N.C Lieu, The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars AD 226–363, A documentary History Compiled and edited, Routledge, 1994
Further reading
Fowden, Garth. The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 84. (1994), pp. 146–170.
Thomson, Robert W. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 43. (1989), pp. 125–226.
Armenian saints
Arsacid dynasty of Armenia
Armenian Apostolic Christians
Oriental Orthodox monarchs
3rd-century Armenian people
4th-century Armenian people
4th-century Christian saints
3rd-century women
4th-century women
Armenian princesses