The band was found, Rhipsime was recognized, and the king sent an
escort of litters to bring them to his court. As Diocletian suspected,
the Armenian king also fell in love, for the maiden, having refused
the pomp of a royal equipage, was forced to appear before him
in court. The Armenian's suit was likewise a failure. Rhipsime
would marry, provided he became Christian, which the king took as
mockery. Again the girl succeeded in escaping, but she was tracked,
overtaken with her companions, bound with cords, and put to death with
great cruelty. Both Rhipsime and her nurse Gaiane are commemorated on
the calendar of saints, and at Etchmiadzin, the religious center of
the nation, there are three edifices; the largest and most important
bears the name of St. Gregory, while the other two respectively bear
the names of the two saints, Rhipsime and Gaiane.
Agathangelus relates the legend in his Histoire du Règne de Tiridate
but unfortunately the book has been tampered with and now contains much
questionable material. [77] There are mentioned ominous thunderclaps,
openings of heaven, divine voices exhorting Rhipsime to stand firm
in her faith, and the transformation of Tiridates into a grass-eating
boar which was the punishment for his great crime. The sister of the
king, Khosrovitukht, had a vision, in which she was told that the only
remedy was to send for a prisoner named Gregory, who had been cast
into a well some thirteen years before. A rope was let down into the
cavern, and to the astonishment of all, there emerged a human form,
blackened to the color of coal. It was none other than Gregory. He also
saw visions and heard divine voices speak through curious openings in
heaven. Strange columns of fire and flaming crosses of light appeared
to him in the places where Rhipsime and Gaiane suffered martyrdom;
and there appeared a great deal more to him which is recorded, even as
there must have appeared yet more which is not recorded. The result of
all of this was that Gregory ordered the construction of two chapels,
one to be erected in honor of Rhipsime, the other in memory of Gaiane,
both of which are still standing in Etchmiadzin. Etchmiadzin means,
"the place where the Only-Begotten descended" for it was at this
place that Gregory beheld his miraculous vision. Having prayed for
the healing of the king, the horns fell from the royal head, and
Tiridates, now a Christian, shared in the work of constructing the
chapels. [78] He ascended Ararat and returned with huge blocks of
stone which he laid at the portals of the chapels in expiation of his
sin. It was customary among Armenians to place huge blocks of stone
at the entrance of a church by way of offering. Dubois de Montpèreux
saw a number of such stones, six or seven feet high, in front of the
cathedral at Etchmiadzin, but Lynch found no trace of them. [79]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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