GREGORY, SAINT, the "Illuminator;" lx 257 A.D.; founder and patron saint of the Armenian church. He belonged to the royal race of time Ala:n(1(1es, being the son of a certain prince Anak, who assassinated Chosroes of Armenia, and thus brought ruin on himself and his family. His mother's name was Okohe, and the Armenian biographers toll that at the time of his conception he came under the holy influence of the apostle Thaddeus. Educated by a Christian nobleman, Euthalios, in Cresarea in Cappadocia, Gregory sought, when he came to man's estate, to introduce the Christian doctrine into his native land. At that time Tiridates I., a son of Chosroes, sat on the throne, and, influenced partly it may be by the fact that Gregory was the son of his father'scnemy, he subjected him:to-much. ,cruel usage, and imprisoned him for fourteen years. But vengeance and niadnesSICR"On the king, and at length G•egoiy called forth from his pit to restore his royal persecutor to reason by virtue of his saintly intercession.
The cause of Christianity was now secured; king and princes and people vied with each other in obedience to Gregory's instructions, and convents, churches, and schools were established. Gregory in 302 received consecration as patriarch of Armenia from Leontius of Caesarea, and in 318 he appointed his son Aristax to be his successor. About 331 he withdrew to a cave in the mountain Sebuh in the province of Daranalia in upper Armenia, and there he died a few years afterwards unattended and unob served. When it was discovered that he was dead his corpse was removed to the village of Thordanum or Thortan. The remains of the saint were scattered far and near in the reign of Zeno. His head is said to be now in Italy, his right hand at Etchmiadzin, and his left at Sis.