St. Gregory of Narek, Doctor of the Church

Note from ORDO — During weekdays of Lent, a Saint listed in the General Calendar of the Church may have his Collect prayed at the Mass (ORDO, p. xiv, 10, c):

Gregory of Narek (c. 945-1010) or, in Armenian, Grigor Narekatsi, was a Christian mystic, poet theologian, and saint of the Armenian Church. He is considered the most beloved and significant theologian and literary figure of the Armenian religious tradition.

He was born in Armenia, in the village of Narek, region of Vaspurakan (present-day Van), eastern Turkey. It is in the region where about half a million to 1.5 million Armenians were killed at the hands of Islamic Ottoman Turks in 1915-17 in what Armenians called a “genocide.”

Gregory’s father, Khosrov Andzevatsi, who became a bishop after his wife died, sent Gregory to the monastery of Narek to be educated. After his ordination, he stayed and taught theology at the monastery school until his death. It was a time of great theological tension. Gregory’s father had held on to the doctrine of Chalcedon on Christ’s divinity, while the majority of church authority in the area opposed it. Like his father, Gregory firmly adhered to the Chalcedonian doctrine.

Gregory was well-versed in Greek philosophy and was also well-read in the Armenian Church Fathers of the fourth through seventh centuries. He was familiar with the thoughts of St. Ignatius of Antioch, the Cappadocian Fathers and Chrysostom.

Gregory’s major work, The Book of Lamentations, popularly known as “Narek,” has been translated into 30 languages. It is a book of poetic mystical prayers, still much venerated. He completed it towards the end of his life. It is a monologue, a personal lyric, and a confessional poem, mystical and meditative. It comprises 95 chapters and over 10,000 lines, addressed to God “from the depths of my heart.”

This poetic masterpiece is about the conflict between Gregory‘s desire for perfection, as taught by Jesus, and the impossibility of attaining it because of his unworthiness. However, the love and mercy of God’s all-embracing, all-forgiving, and amazing grace compensate for human unworthiness.

Narek has been described as “one of the world’s great mystical poems” and “the most beloved work of Armenian literature.” It is kept, next to the Bible, in Armenian homes, “as a talisman against all kinds of dangers.”

Gregory’s second most known work is a commentary on the Song of Songs, a “prose masterpiece,” written in 977, the year he was ordained a priest. The commentary contains a condemnation of marriage and sexual practices by a heretical Armenian sect. Gregory makes frequent use of Gregory of Nyssa’s “Letters on the Song of Songs.” He also wrote numerous homilies, prayers, chants, and hymns, some of which are still sung today in Armenian churches.

He wrote encomiums on the Holy Virgin, affirming the doctrine of Mary’s perpetual virginity and her bodily Assumption.

He wrote against the Paulicians and Tondrakians, two heretical sects, and wrote on the centrality of the Sacraments against the Tondrakian deprecation of the Sacraments.

He was profoundly influenced by Neoplatonism and he introduced concepts of divinization and spiritual discernment through the practice of penitential purification.

Gregory died in 1005 in his Monastery of Narek, where he is enshrined. In his 1987 Encyclical, “Redemptoris Mater,” Pope John Paul II called Gregory, “one of the outstanding glories of Armenia.” In his Angelus Address on 18 February 2001, he described Gregory as “one of Our Lady’s principal poets.” On 23 February 2015, Pope Francis declared Gregory a Doctor of the Church, the 36th and 1st Armenian Doctor of the Church.

A Prayer of St. Gregory: And now, compassionate God, I pray for your mercy, as you instructed in your own words, “Make offerings in the name of God’s salvation and you shall be made holy, for I want contrition not sacrifice.” Be exalted anew in remembrance of this offering in incense, for everything is in you, and everything is from you. To you be glory from all. Amen.