Saint Ashkhen

Ashkhen (Armenian: Աշխէն, flourished second half of the 3rd century & first half of the 4th century) was the Queen of Armenia and a member of the Arsacid dynasty by marriage to King Tiridates III of Armenia. Ashkhen was a monarch of Sarmatian origins. She was the daughter and is the known child of the King of the Alans, Ashkatar who is also known as Ashkhadar by an unnamed wife. Ashkhen was born at an unknown date between about 260-280 and was raised in the Alani Kingdom. Little is known on her early life, prior to marrying Tiridates III. The name Ashkhen is a female Armenian name which derives from the word akhsen, ‘grey’, or Zend akhsaena which means ‘black’ or ‘bluish-black’. Tiridates III served as a Roman client king of Armenia from 287 to 330, and married Ashkhen in 297. At the time the Armenian state religion was Zoroastrianism. Tiridates III and Ashkhen had three children: a son, Khosrov III, a daughter, Salome, and an unnamed daughter who married St. Husik I, an early Catholicos (head of the Armenian Apostolic Church). According to legend, after Tiridates had killed a group of Christians, the Hripsimeyan nuns, he lost his sanity. Meanwhile Ashkhen and Tiridates' sister Khosrovidukht may have already been converted to Christianity through the efforts of the Hripsimeyan nuns and others in the Armenian Christian underground. The legend says that after Khosrovidukht persuaded Tiridates to free the Christian Gregory the Illuminator (later considered the Armenian patron saint), whom he had imprisoned, Gregory cured him of his madness. Then, Tiridates converted and declared Christianity the official state religion of Armenia, making it the first nation to officially adopt Christianity. Sometime after Tiridates III's baptism, Gregory baptised Tiridates III's family, including Ashkhen and his entire court and his army on the Euphrates River.