Doctor of the Church (950-1003)
Today’s Saint of the Day is an opportunity for a history lesson. Roy–you need to get another cup of coffee.
On February 21, 2015, Pope Francis announced his decision to make St. Gregory of Narek (950-1003) the newest Doctor of the Church. One key question that arises from this declaration is: was St. Gregory even a Catholic?
The short answer to this question seems to be no. He was a member of the Armenian Apostolic Church, which is a non-Chalcedonian Church because of its rejection of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon.
However, the relationship of the Armenian Apostolic Church to the Catholic Church is long and complicated. I would like to provide a brief history to help us consider the implications of this new Armenian Doctor of the Church.
Armenian Apostolic Church
Armenians recognize St. Jude Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew as the first evangelizers of their nation. The territory of Armenia once stretched from the Ural Mountains southward across modern Turkey and even to northern Lebanon. Its first kingdom was established in the sixth century BC and remained mostly independent, even amidst the regional power struggles between Rome and the Persian Empire.
In about the year 301 Tiridates III proclaimed Christianity the official religion of his state, making Armenia the first Christian nation. According to the oldest accounts, Tiridates had imprisoned St. Gregory the Illuminator for 13 years before being healed by him. He then appointed Gregory as Catholicos, or head, of the Armenian Church. Following the adoption of Christianity, the Church forged the first Armenian alphabet, which was used for a translation of Scripture and for the Armenian liturgy.
For about 450 years, from 428 to 885 AD, Armenia lost independence to the Byzantine Empire and later to Islamic conquest. It was during that time that schism ensued between Armenia and the Catholic Church. Along with the churches of Egypt and Syria, Armenia rejected the Council of Chalcedon, which took place in the year 451. Though initially repudiated, Chalcedon was officially condemned by the Armenian Church in 554 at the second council of Dvin, when communion was officially broken between churches.
In the year 629, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius was able to reach an agreement with Catholicos Ezra to reunite the churches. Unfortunately, in 651 at the Synod of Manzikert, the reunion was repudiated by the Armenians. The condemnation of montheletism (the heresy that Jesus Christ has only one will) at the Third Council of Constantinople only further distanced the Armenians.
Though the Armenians had much more contact with the Byzantines, the Crusades brought Latin Catholics back into contact with the Armenians. In particular, the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia, in modern-day Turkey, had favorable relations, and even a short ecclesial reunion, with the Crusaders.
Formal attempts at reunion with Armenians more broadly occurred at the Second Council of Lyons in 1274 and the Council of Florence in 1439, though these moves did not result in a lasting reunion. The Council of Florence contains a bull of reunion with the Armenians (November 22, 1439), which, not surprisingly, sought to enforce the Christological decisions of the earlier Councils, and to enforce conformity in practice with the Church of Rome. It outlined details on the seven sacraments and prescribes actions such as mixing water with the wine during the Liturgy and the celebration of certain feasts. It optimistically praises the Armenians.
Efforts at reunion with Rome were resumed by a group of friars called the Friars of Reunion. Groups of Armenians were brought into the Catholic Church beginning in the 1630s within the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Empire.
In 1755 Pope Benedict XIV wrote extensively on questions pertaining to Eastern Catholics, noting clearly that some Armenians were observing the unions of Lyons and Florence. In his mind, the former acts of union had had an effect. Earlier in 1742, he had created a Patriarch of Cilicia for Armenians based in Lebanon and appointed a former bishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Abraham Ardzivian, as first Patriarch. Bishops remained in Lebanon and were added to Constantinople and Armenia itself in 1850.
Armenian Christianity was nearly destroyed by the Ottoman Turks during what is now called the Armenian Genocide of 1915, and the Church was suppressed in Armenia during the Communist regime. The current population of Armenian Catholics is just over 500,000.
On December 13, 1996, Pope St. John Paul II issued a common declaration with the Armenian Apostolic Catholicos Karekin I, which spoke of a common faith in Christ, which has been obscured by different linguistic expressions. The declaration expresses the hope that the divergence of Christological language should no longer be an obstacle to seeking reunion.
St. Gregory of Narek
This brief history of the Armenian Catholic Church brings us to St. Gregory of Narek’s new honor as a Doctor of the Church. St. Gregory is the first Doctor of the Church to have lived outside direct communion with the Bishop of Rome.
Gregory was born around 950 to a family of scholarly churchmen. His father, Khosrov, was an archbishop. He lost his mother very early, so he was educated by his cousin, Anania of Narek, who was the founder of the monastery and school of the village. At a young age, Gregory entered the Narek Monastery on the south-east shore of Lake Van in Vaspurakan, Greater Armenia, now Turkey and lived almost all of his life in the monastery.
Shortly before the first millennium of Christianity, Narek Monastery was a thriving center of learning. Gregory was a product of that thriving center. Gregory was an Armenian monk, poet, mystical philosopher, theologian and saint of the Armenian Apostolic Church and Catholic Church. He was “Armenia’s first great poet”.
He is the author of a mystical interpretation on the Song of Songs and numerous poetic writings. His Book of Prayers, also known as “Book of Lamentations”, is a long mystical poem in 95 sections written around 977, has been translated into many languages. The book, the work of his mature years, remains one of the definitive pieces of Armenian literature.
St. Gregory has recently shown up a couple of times in Roman Catholic Magisterial writings. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, for instance, contains a reference to him:
Medieval piety in the West developed the prayer of the rosary as a popular substitute for the Liturgy of the Hours. In the East, the litany called the Akathistos and the Paraclesis remained closer to the choral office in the Byzantine churches, while the Armenian, Coptic, and Syriac traditions preferred popular hymns and songs to the Mother of God. But in the Ave Maria, the theotokia, the hymns of St. Ephrem [also known as St. Gregory of Narek], the tradition of prayer is basically the same.
And Pope St. John Paul II referred to him in his encyclical, Redemptoris Mater:
In his panegyric of the Theotokos, Saint Gregory of Narek, one of the outstanding glories of Armenia, with powerful poetic inspiration ponders the different aspects of the mystery of the Incarnation, and each of them is for him an occasion to sing and extol the extraordinary dignity and magnificent beauty of the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Word made flesh.
St. Gregory Narek is a poet to the core, and demonstrated amply, like the Hebrew prophets, that beauty is the truest form of divine discourse. Many of his theological and mystical-ascetical works are written as a colloquy — a dialogue with God — as was St. Augustine’s autobiography, the Confessions. Here is a sample of Narek’s writing from his famous Speaking with God from the Depths of the Heart:
The voice of a sighing heart, its sobs and mournful cries, I offer up to you, O Seer of Secrets, placing the fruits of my wavering mind as a savory sacrifice on the fire of my grieving soul to be delivered to you in the censer of my will.
Compassionate Lord, breathe in this offering and look more favorably on it than upon a more sumptuous sacrifice offered with rich smoke. Please find this simple string of words acceptable. Do not turn in disdain.
May this unsolicited gift reach you, this sacrifice of words from the deep mystery-filled chamber of my feelings, consumed in flames fueled by whatever grace I may have within me.
As I pray, do not let these pleas annoy you, Almighty, like the raised hands of Jacob, whose irreverence was rebuked by Isaiah, nor let them seem like the impudence of Babylon criticized in the 72nd Psalm.
But let these words be acceptable as were the fragrant offerings in the tabernacle at Shiloh raised again by David on his return from captivity as the resting place for the ark of the covenant, a symbol for the restoration of my lost soul.
True to Pope Francis’ pastoral style, this doctor is chosen from the “margins” of the suffering church. (Recall that in 2012 Pope Benedict named another “marginal” medieval woman as Doctor of the Church, the twelfth century Abbess Saint Hildegard of Bingen (see my Reflection dated October 14, 2019)).
Many sections of the Armenian Divine Liturgy are taken from the words of St. Gregory. It is magnificent poetry, has a sense of mystery, and is theologically deep. One of the most cherished hymns of the Liturgy is called Khorhoort Khoreen, “O Mystery Deep.”
O Mystery deep, inscrutable, without beginning. Thou hast decked thy supernatural realm as a chamber unto the light unapproachable and hast adorned with splendid glory the ranks of thy fiery spirits.
If you don’t feel you have stepped onto terrifyingly holy ground when that is chanted, I don’t know what would.
A side note: Equipollent or equivalent canonization
It should be noted that when Pope Benedict XVI declared St. Hildegard von Bingen as a Doctor of Church, he used the process of equipollent or equivalent canonization, as she also had not been formally canonized. St. Albert the Great was canonized in this fashion when he was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1931 by Pope Pius XI. Pope Benedict used this process of canonization a few other times and Pope Francis has done so with even greater regularity. When there is strong devotion among the faithful toward holy men and women who have not been formally canonized, the Pope can choose to authorize their veneration as saints without going through the whole canonization process. Historically, this is often done when the saints lived so long ago that fulfilling all the requirements of canonization would be exceedingly difficult.
On February 21, 2015 Pope Francis announced his decision to canonize St. Gregory of Narek and named him a Doctor of the Church. His feast day February 27.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!