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His freedom came when the king fell ill and his physicians were unable to cure him. The story goes that forty Christian nuns, who had fled from the persecutions of the Roman emperor, were looking for asylum in Armenia. Tirdat fell in love with one of the nuns, but his love was rejected by her, which aggravated the king. The king ordered their execution, after a long period of torture. The event had a severe impact on the mental health of Tirdat III and his health started to worsen day by day. Finally his physicians gave up and everyone waited for the inevitable end. One night the king's sister had a dream that Grigor could cure her brother. The following day she sent a servant to the dungeon to fetch Grigor, even though everyone assumed that he must long since have died, but the servant found Grigor alive and he was able to heal the king and ease his guilt. This had an profound effect on Tirdat III and resulted in his conversion to Christianity (288). In 301 Christianity was proclaimed as the official state religion in Armenia. 36



This was a major event which made Armenia the first Christian state in the world. 37 We know that the conversion of Constantine to Christianity and the proclamation of Christianity as the state religion of the Byzantine Empire did not happen until year 313. 38 As Henri Focillon pointed out: "It is a matter of historical pride to Armenians, that they founded the oldest state religion in history." 39

The conversion of the people started, but their strong attachment to their old faith made the process difficult and even ended in bloodshed. This was especially noticeable in the province of Taron (Moush) the principal place of pagan pilgrimage, with several temples dedicated to the national gods having been built in the city of Ashtishat. The chief priest, Artzan, and his son Demétius led thousands of other priests and believers in an armed struggle against the Christians, an uneven battle which ended in the victory of the Christians and the death of all the heathens. The temples of the heathens, which included several masterpieces of Armenian architecture, were destroyed completely and Grigor Lousavoritch allowed the first Armenian Church to be built on their ruins. The building of the Armenian Holy See started in year 303, in the present-day Etchmiadzin (Armenian for "The place of the descent of the only-begotten", i.e. Jesus as God's only-begotten son), and by year 305 the cathedral was ready.

The result of this resistance was not confined to the destruction of the old temples.The narrowmindedness of the Christians also meant that almost all the cultural and literary works from old Armenia -,items that bore testimony to hundreds of years of civilisation -, were lost.

Grigor was appointed to be the Catholicos of Armenians by Tirdat III. Shortly after his appointment he left for Cappadocia, where he was consecrated by the archbishop of Caesarea and returned to Armenia to finish his work. The newly founded Armenian Church received its very first rituals and its gospel together with several Christian religious books and priests from Syria, which was one of the major religious centres of that time.

The Armenian Church became extremely rich, since it, besides the assets of the old temples which the church had confiscated, was granted large tracts of land. In this way the church became the owner of approximately 10 000 farms and the clergy exploited these exactly as did the other Armenian princes. During wartime the church was obliged to assist the king with soldiers as well as taxes. It is on record that the church, if necessary, was obliged to provide the king with 5 000 cavalry and 4 000 infantry soldiers.