Jack Voelkel
Gregory the Illuminator (240-332AD)
Someone once expressed great surprise to me upon learning how long the Church has been involved in mission. In fact, ever since the early chapters of the book of Acts, God has been leading His servants to carry the Gospel to people who have never heard of Jesus. Gregory was one such servant - one of the earliest and most effective missionaries in the Church’s history. His costly witness resulted in the country of Armenia becoming a Christian nation, a first for any political state!
The pit was dark and deep. Gregory, the solitary prisoner barely alive, shifted his weight trying to find a comfortable position. His jailors had left him there to slowly starve to death.
Lonely, wounded, hungry – perhaps his prayers echoed the cry of the Psalmist:
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Hear my voice,
Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
- Psalm 130
God heard. Somewhere nearby, a widow had a vivid dream directing her to make a small loaf of bread each day and throw it to the prisoner in the pit. Day after day the small loaf appeared out of nowhere and sustained him as he prayed for release, for his captors, and for Armenia. He waited 13 years.
During those long years he had plenty of time to rehearse the events that had led him to Armenia and then to this dank, dark, dungeon.
Gregory’s father, Prince Anug, had been a confidant of the King of Persia, an enemy of the Armenians. Anug was given a secret mission – to go to Armenia and assassinate King Khosrov I. The prince obeyed, taking his family along with him. He assassinated King Khosrov, but while trying to escape, was discovered and killed. Only his two sons, Gregory and his brother, escaped with their lives.
Gregory was taken to Caesarea (in Asia Minor – modern Turkey), by his Christian nurse, Sophia. As he grew up, he heard the Gospel and became a Christian. He came to the attention of Firmilian, the learned Bishop of Caesarea, who discipled and trained him. As time went by, Gregory felt called to dedicate his life to the preaching of the Word of God.
Life was full and rich during these years. Gregory fell in love with and married Miriam, a believer from a devout family. She gave him two sons, and great happiness. As time passed their joy was marred by the growing Roman persecution of Christians and the martyrdom of her brother.
As Gregory prayed about his call, he found his thoughts frequently returning to Armenia. The country was under the influence of a religion very similar to Zoroastrianism, the worship of the sun and fire. Temples dedicated to different gods were everywhere. He knew that the priesthood was well organized and that any kind of missionary effort would be met with strong resistance. Even so, the call persisted—reinforced by a personal longing to cleanse the family name from his father’s crime. He struggled before the Lord and shared his heart with Miriam. Should he stay in Asia Minor and help strengthen the church in the midst of its persecution? Firmilian was getting old; leadership would be needed. Or should he respond to an ever-increasing sense of call to take the Gospel to Armenia?
The urgency to go grew stronger and stronger as Gregory and Miriam talked and prayed together. Finally they made the costly decision. Recognizing the dangers of sharing the Gospel in a hostile environment, they decided to separate. A close friend of the family received their older child. Miriam took Aristakes, their second son, barely three years old, with her to a convent. Gregory set his face toward Armenia.
Gregory - an able linguist and well-educated, winsome man - was somehow able to penetrate into Armenian society. In time he came to the attention of King Tiridates, the son of the very man his father had murdered, and was invited to become the King’s private secretary. After his father’s death, Tridates had been raised under Roman protection, joined the Roman legions, and became a valiant soldier. His connection with Rome helped him reclaim his throne. However, he was always in the delicate and difficult context of ruling over a people caught between the giant powers of Rome in the West and Persia in the East, and subject to invasion by both.
Gregory served King Tiridates faithfully, never revealing his true identity, but ever looking for opportunities to give witness to the reality and power of God. But then came the crisis. Tiridates engaged the Persians in a battle and won a great victory. When the King and all his leaders offered wreaths and branches of trees to the altar of their favorite goddess, Gregory was caught in a bind. Until now he had done his best to fit into Armenian culture, but participating in a non-Christian religious observance would compromise his convictions. He refused to do so and openly confessed his faith in Jesus Christ.
The King was furious. He called him, “the enemy of the gods.” He ordered Gregory bound and personally tortured him extensively to force him to recant. Gregory stood firm, but somehow in the process his true identity was discovered. He was thrown into the deep dungeon of the Artashat Fortress in Ararat. Tiridates felt quite justified in his action: it would assuage the indignation of the priests, curry favor with the anti-Christian Emperor, Diocletian, and revenge the murder of his father.
Gregory was middle-aged when he began his long sojourn in the terrible pit. His physical suffering was intensified by loneliness and spiritual anguish. He had given up so much to be obedient to his call: his happy marriage and satisfying life in Caesarea, his two precious children, and his leadership of the church. He had come to Armenia at great cost to serve God, but where was God now? The fury of the King, the terrible torture, and now this dungeon crawling with vermin and the stench of decomposing bodies of former prisoners - so damp, dismal, and so very, very dark. “Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God!” Would God hear and rescue him? Would He answer his prayers for Armenia itself?
Then one day after 13 years, light streamed into the pit. Men’s voices called his name. Hardly able to walk, he was helped out, blinking in the light, aware of his filthy body, his unkempt hair and beard, and his clothes in rags. He could hardly comprehend the amazing news from the King’s advisors. Armenia had been betrayed by Rome; vast territories had been lost. Under the intense pressure, the King had suffered either an emotional collapse or demonic possession. No one knew what to do. The King’s sister had had a strange dream. She saw Gregory’s face, calling for an end to the persecution of the Christians. When she awoke she came to the conclusion that perhaps this “saint,” if he were still alive, could help her brother.
Would he try to help the man responsible for his torture and years of inhuman confinement? Would he pray for God to heal Tiridates’—the man who had so despised Gregory’s faith? “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you:” the words of Jesus. And so Gregory prayed, and the Lord heard, and not only brought full healing to the King but opened his eyes to the truth of the Gospel and gave him a radically new life. The two spent a lot of time together, conversing, studying the Scripture, and praying. Tiridates not only received baptism but shared the Gospel with his nobles and pagan priests. The message of Jesus began to spread through the nation.
Gregory returned to Caesarea where he was ordained and consecrated Bishop of the Armenians. He was reunited with his family, and discovered that his son, Aristakes, had also felt called to the ministry. Returning to Armenia, Gregory preached in the national language and gave the Armenian Church its national character. He established churches and schools. Aristakes worked with him closely and became his successor, attending the famous Council of Nicea in 325 as a delegate. Aristakes’ son, Grigoris, later became a missionary to Georgia and Caucasian Albania where he died a Christian martyr. Another descendant, with the aid of a learned monk, devised an alphabet for the Armenian language, and translated a quantity of religious books into Armenian from Greek and Syriac.
In his eighties, Gregory withdrew to a monastery. Still vigorous and visionary, he filled his days with praise to God and the writing of a compendium of his thoughts and beliefs, until Jesus took him Home.
As you read the life of this early missionary, what about him touched your own life? What did you observe? Join in the Discussion (requires free registration)
As I studied his biography, several key principles come to light for me:
1. Sovereign foundations: God uses all the elements of our heritage and backgrounds as He shapes us for the destiny He has prepared for us. Gregory’s misfortunes, conversion, multicultural experiences, and early training were critical elements that led him to Armenia and enabled him to penetrate the culture.
2. Counting the cost: Pioneer missionaries today face great problems as they consider taking a family into a hostile environment or consider long separations. Gregory and Miriam made hard choices and great personal sacrifices to do what they felt the Lord wanted them to do.
3. The place of suffering: When Jesus calls us, He doesn’t promise a life sheltered from physical suffering, trauma, or even martyrdom. We follow a crucified Savior who said, “Follow me.” He also gives us opportunities to forgive those who mistreat us to reveal part of His character.
4. God is not silent: God has His people everywhere on earth and uses creative and diverse ways of communication (including dreams!) and meets the needs of His children.
5. No closed doors: In what appear to be “closed countries,” God is able to plant His Church (although not without cost).
6. Holistic Gospel: Just as Gregory had to face political, social, and spiritual realities, so missionaries do today. They have made great contributions to national cultures in every realm, including education, literacy, the invention of alphabets, and systems of writing for oral cultures.
7. Co-laborers with God: Jesus said, “I will build my church,” and He does, but He uses fallible, human instruments.
Jack Voelkel
Sources: Peter Toon. “Gregory the Illuminator,” in J.D. Douglas (ed) New International Dictionary of the Christian Church (Zondervan, 1978), numerous articles found on the Internet, including the Catholic Encyclopedia and Gevork Nazaryan, “Armenian Enlightenment Chronicle”. [Note: not all the sources agree as to the details of Gregory’s life, but the main facts dealing with his conversion, suffering, and the founding of the Church in Armenia are clear.]
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