Gregory of Narek

Life events

1. Born

   Gregory was born c. 945–951 in a village on the southern shores of Lake Van, in the Kingdom of Vaspurakan (modern eastern Turkey), to Khosrov Andzevatsi, a relative of the Artsruni royal family; his mother died in his early childhood.

2. Educated

   After his father Khosrov was excommunicated by Catholicos Anania Mokatsi for views derived from Pseudo-Dionysius, Gregory and his brother Hovhannes were sent to Narekavank monastery, where he received his formation under Anania Narekatsi, the monastery's founder and his maternal great-uncle.

3. Ordained — 977

   Gregory was ordained a priest in 977 and subsequently taught theology at the monastery school of Narekavank until his death.

4. Wrote — 977

   In 977, the year of his ordination, Gregory completed a commentary on the Song of Songs at the request of prince Gurgen-Khachik Artsruni of Vaspurakan; the work draws extensively on Gregory of Nyssa and contains explicit condemnation of Tondrakian teachings.

5. Wrote

   In the 980s Gregory composed a treatise against the Tondrakians, a Paulician-derived sect condemned as heretical by the Armenian Apostolic Church, possibly to dispel accusations that he himself was sympathetic to their movement.

6. Wrote

   Towards the end of his life Gregory completed the Book of Lamentations (Classical Armenian: Մատեան ողբերգութեան, Matean oghbergut'ean), a mystical confessional poem of 95 chapters and over 10,000 lines, each chapter addressed directly to God under the title 'Words unto God from the Depths of My Heart.'

7. Died

   Gregory died c. 1003 or 1010–11 and was buried within the walls of Narekavank monastery; a rectangular chapel-mausoleum over his tomb survived until the mid-20th century, when Turkish authorities destroyed the monastery — already abandoned in the aftermath of the Armenian genocide — and replaced it with a mosque.

8. Other — 2015

   On 23 February 2015 Pope Francis declared Gregory of Narek a Doctor of the Church; on 12 April 2015 (Divine Mercy Sunday) Francis formally proclaimed the title at a Mass marking the centennial of the Armenian genocide at St. Peter's Basilica, attended by Catholicos Garegin II, Catholicos Aram I, and Armenian Catholic Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni. Gregory became the 36th Doctor of the Church, the first Armenian, and the only Doctor not in communion with the Catholic Church during his lifetime.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Gregory is the 36th Doctor of the Church (declared 2015), the first Armenian, and the only Doctor of the Church who was not in communion with the Catholic Church during his lifetime. (certain)
• For centuries Armenians kept the Book of Lamentations as an object of quasi-talismanic reverence; patriarch Malachia Ormanian wrote that it was 'regarded as a potent talisman against all kinds of dangers,' and individual passages were read over the ill as a means of healing. (likely)
• According to Hrachik Mirzoyan, Gregory may have coined more than 2,500 new Armenian words, including lusankar ('portrait or image') and odach'u ('a person who flies; pilot'). (plausible)
• The Narek school was instrumental in instilling Christian Neoplatonism in Armenian theology, introducing concepts such as divinization and penitential purification; Gregory may have been influenced by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, though this view has been challenged. (likely)
• Gregory was recognized in the revised 2001 Roman Martyrology and its 2004 edition; in 2021 the Congregation for Divine Worship established an optional memorial for him on 27 February on the General Roman Calendar. (certain)