Agathangelos

Agathangelos is the author of the History of the Armenians, the book that tells how King Tiridates III became a Christian and how Gregory the Illuminator brought Christianity to Armenia. It was written in Armenian in the fifth century, after the invention of the Armenian alphabet, and a Greek version followed soon after.¹

The History tells of the wars between Armenia and Persia, of the king’s return to his throne, of Gregory’s imprisonment, of the martyrdom of nuns at Vagharshapat, of the conversion of the king and his court, of the destruction of the pagan temples, and of the founding of a Christian clergy.¹ It is the account of the Conversion of Armenia to Christianity that the Armenian Church and the Armenian people have kept as their own, and it shaped how Armenians understand who they are and where their faith began.² The Classical Armenian text, with a parallel English translation, is online at ARAK29.³