E00497: Agathangelos' History of Armenia, written in Armenian, in the second half of the 5th c., tells the story, set in the early 4th c., of the martyrdom and death at Artašat on the orders of King Trdat of the virgins *Hripsimē (Armenian virgin and martyr of Roman origin, S00645), *Gayanē (Armenian martyr and companion of Hripsimē, S00260) and their companions.
Creators: name: Naleksidze
Publisher: name: University of Oxford
Year: 2015
Subjects: History

description: Agathangelos, History of Armenia, 137-210<br><br>In those days the Emperor Diocletian sought for a wife. He sent out painters who could reproduce the image of the most beautiful women in his empire. They arrived in Rome and found there a convent of virgins. Their leader was called Gayanē (S00260) and her protegée's name was Hripsimē. The messengers forcibly made their way into the convent. The painters were amazed by Hripsimē's beauty, and having painted her image brought it to the emperor. <br><br>The emperor was overwhelmed by the virgin's beauty and rapidly dispatched envoys throughout his realm to celebrate his upcoming wedding. Meanwhile Diocletian was beguiled by Satan, stirred up persecution against the churches, and began worshipping idols. The holy virgins offered lengthy prayers to God, who wished to save them and made them flee to the land of Armenia. <br><br>So they arrived and established themselves in the city of Vałaršapat, the capital of Armenia. But the emperor's searchers and messengers tracked them down. Having heard that they were hiding in Armenia, Diocletian sent a letter to Armenia's king Trdat and asked him to find and send back to him the escaped holy virgins. After a few days of searching, their whereabouts was discovered. The king had a legion of infantry keep armed guard over the place where they had been found. <br><br>But soon Hripsimē's beauty became widely known among the dwellers of Vałaršapat and knowledge of it reached the king too. Thus, she was brought into the king's presence. The king wished to take her but could not overcome the virgin by force, as she was strengthened by the Holy Spirit. She tore the king's robe and royal garment, and, opening the door by force, she went out, with no-one able to hold her. <br><br>Then she fled to the north-east, to the city of Artašat. She prayed intensely and, after she finished her prayers, the king's chief-executioners found her and bound her. They tried to pull out her tongue and she let them. Then they burned her alive, and thrust stones into her entrails, and, while she was still alive, they plucked out her eyes and then dismembered her limb by limb. <br><br>The faithful ones, the companions of the martyr, came and sought to wrap and bury her body, but many of them were killed too. Thus the powerful and mighty king was defeated by a single girl. Then he was suddenly saddened by the virgin's death and mourned bitterly. He still could not believe that she was dead and asked the executioners to bring her to him. <br><br>But then, enraged, he commanded to first have Gayanē's tongue pulled out and for her then to be put to death, since she had dared to corrupt Hripsimē with her advice. Thus Gayanē and the rest of the women were tortured and were burned at the stake. The executioners pierced the skin of the soles of their feet and put in tubes, and by blowing flayed the three saints alive, from below up to their breasts. They then pierced their gullets and pulled out their tongues, and forced stones into their entrails. Finally, because they were still alive, they cut off their heads with a sword. Thus, thirty seven of the seventy refugees were tortured and killed. <br><br>210:<br>Արդ՝ ի քսան եւ ի վեց ամսոյն հոռի կատարեցաւ սուրբն Հռիփսիմէ դասուն սրբով, երեսուն եւ երեք նահատակակից ընկերաւքն հանդերձ. եւ ի քսան եւ եաւթն ամսոյն հոռի՝ սուրբն Գայիանէ երկու իւրովք ընկերաւքն, որք ընդ նմա պատերազմեալք պսակեցան եւ առին զպսակն յաղթութեան։ <br><br>'So on the twenty-sixth of the month of Hori [February], saint Hripsimē died with the holy company of thirty-three fellow martyrs; and on the twenty-seventh of the month of Hori saint Gayanē with her two companions, who with her fought the fight and were crowned and received the palm of victory. <br><br>The Greek translation of this story continues with the following detail, which is absent from the Armenian as known to us:<br><br>'The bodies of the saints remained for a long time where they were, exhaling a sweet odour. All the people were amazed that a sweet odour instead of a foul smell was given off by their holy and undefiled bodies.'<br><br>Agathangalos’s History then continues, to show how the deaths of Hripsimē and Gayanē eventually led to the conversion of King Trdat and of all Armenia to Christianity, since the martyrdom of the holy virgins and the king’s subsequent torturing of *Gregory the Illuminator (S00251), caused him to be turned into the form of a boar; from which he was only saved by listening to Gregory and turning to Christianity.<br><br>Text: Thomson 1980, 78-112. Translation: Thomson 2010, 213-274. Summary: Nikoloz Aleksidze.