The Great King Tiridates

The Church has the ability to turn the ravenous wolves into lambs. We can look at the example of St. Paul, a fierce persecutor of Christians, how the Church would humble this fearsome persecutor of the Faith into a Lamb, an Holy Apostle, for the sake of Christianity. Among those savage animals, there was a great King in Armenia. He was fearsome, he was vicious. He breathed the fire of a dragon. And he hated with fury the Christian faith that was sweeping across the Roman Empire. How to defend the heathen lies but by a vicious persecution. St. Gregory the Illuminator of Armenia had been a member of the royal family which had previous dynastic rule over Armenia. However, St. Gregory's family had overthrown the Great King's and this inspired him with a hatred over the man Gregory. He wanted nothing to do with St. Gregory or the Faith he had brought with him. To Tiridates, the Faith was nothing more than idle and foolish filth for it certainly is foolishness to the world as the Apostle whom Tiridates was about to follow in suit of once said.

When St. Gregory returned from Constantinople to preach to his home country of Armenia, Tiridates suspected him of more than just pious frauds. Tiridates suspected this family foe of his a traitor to the Kingdom. Though Tiridates enjoyed the servitude of St. Gregory for some time, things were about to dip even further southward in their relationship when the King had discovered that Gregory was a Christian. Not only had this man been a member of a family who opposed the legitimate royal family, this man had brought back the Faith that was spreading throughout the Roman Empire. Tiridates subjected St. Gregory to many harsh tortures, eventually throwing him inside of a pit of snakes for 14 years. The man had to be punished for this treason against the Kingdom of Armenia.

Then, Tiridates turned his wrath upon the nuns Rhipsima, Gaiana, and thirty-five others. As a beast, he desired carnal relations with those who had vowed themselves to chastity, but they refused for their Bridegroom was Christ. Tiridates demanded it, believing that as King, he possessed the right over their bodies. He had sensual desires which needed to be satiated. But the nuns held their grounds before the beast. Tiridates was scolded by Rhipsima who refused him the victory over her chastity. "And he who defeated the Princes of the Goths and destroyed the Persians was unable to overcome one virgin of Christ!" proclaimed the holy martyr. Tiridates, frustrated, seeing his efforts would be in vain, had her tongue cut out and her stomach cut open, and her entrails pulled out. The other nuns were seized and beheaded.

Tiridates began to go mad. He was a wild boar, an animal. Soon, he was grazing on the grass like Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. But his sister had a vision. She reminded him of the man he had thrown into the pit. She had explained that the man was still alive and that he would cure the madness of the Great King. Tiridates went to the snake pit he had thrown St. Gregory into years ago and pulled out the man, alive and unharmed by the snakes. St. Gregory still had to regain his vision from dwelling in a pit for so many years but he healed the King of his madness. And just like St. Paul who experienced the blinding light of Christ on the road to Damascus, Tiridates witnessed the blinding light of Christ as soon as St. Gregory cured him of his blindness. Tiridates, able to see with spiritual vision, would appoint Gregory to be Catholicos of Armenia and proclaimed the Christian Faith the religion of the state of Armenia. Armenia has remained the only state which affirms traditional Christianity as its state religion. Spending the rest of his life in peace and in repentance, Tiridates went from being a savage persecutor of the Christian Faith to becoming its greatest proponent in all of Armenia.