Saint Nerses IV the Gracious

Nerses IV the Gracious (Armenian: Սուրբ Ներսէս Դ. Կլայեցի (Շնորհալի); also Nerses Shnorhali, Nerses of Kla or Saint Nerses the Graceful; 1102 – 13 August 1173) was Catholicos of Armenia from 1166 to 1173. During his time as a bishop and, later, as Catholicos of the Armenian Church, Nerses worked to bring about reconciliation with the Eastern Orthodox Church and convened a council with emissaries selected by the Byzantine emperor himself to discuss how they might be able to reunite the two churches. The terms the emperor offered were, however, unacceptable to both Nerses and the Armenian Church, and the negotiations collapsed. Nerses is remembered as a theologian, poet, writer and hymn composer. He has been called "the Fénelon of Armenia" for his efforts to draw the Armenian church out of isolation, and has been recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church, which holds his feast on August 13, and by the Armenian Apostolic Church, who celebrate him in mid-October on the Saturday of the Fourth Week of the Holy Cross. Nerses was born in approximately 1100 into the noble Pahlavuni family. Nerses was the name he adopted upon ordination as a priest; his birth name is unknown. He was the son of Apirat Pahlavuni and the great-grandson of the writer and prince Grigor Magistros. According to some sources, he was born in the castle of Dzovk in the province of Tluk in Cilicia, located southwest of Aintab in the domain of the Armenian warlord Gogh Vasil. However, other sources claim that Nerses was born in his family's fortress, also called Dzovk, in the historical province of Sophene in Armenia, near modern-day Elazığ. Nerses moved to Dzovk in Cilicia, named after their original home, with his brother, the future Catholicos Gregory III, after the death of their father in 1111.