Armenia and its sorrows

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THE CHURCH IN ARMENIA 43
said to have been written by Abgarus, king of
Edcssa and ruler of large part of Armenia, to our
Lord, in which he refers to rumours of miracles, and
invites Christ to visit Edessa, for the purpose of
curing him of a disease. The answer purj)orts to be
written by the Apostle Thomas, and is to the effect
that although Christ could not accept the invitation.
He would send one of His disciples at a later date.
These two letters are recorded by the historian
Eusebius, and were received as authentic by the early
Church, but they are now rejected as forgeries by all
scholars. It is also stated that the Apostle Thaddeus,
accompanied by Bartholomew and Jude, first preached
the gospel and established a Christian Church in
Armenia about the year A.D. 34. Whether this
tradition be true or false, it is pretty certain that
there were Christians in the country as early as the
first century of our era.
But the great evangelist of Armenia wtjs St.
Gregory^the Illuminator. He was the son of Prince
Anak, a member of the reigning family, and at the
death of his father was carried away to Caesarea in
Cappadocia, where he received a Christian training.
Keturning towards the end of tlic third century, he
comTrrTTiTctM^l preachnig the g"ospel7 and ior'a reward
suft'ered many a torture, and was imprisoned for
thirteen years in a pit. At last his perseverance was
rewarded by the conversion of King Tiridates and
the recognition of Chri stianity as the national religion,
tind- in:-A7i»r^02 he wasconsecrated BisTiop of Armenia^
HtfT^successors assumed the title of Catholicos, and
the national religious community is known as the
Gregorian Church.
In A.D. 400 the Bible was translated into the
language of the people by Bishop Miesrob and the
Patriarch St. Isaac. Fifty years later the Persian
king issued a decree forbidding all religions except