Saint St. Nerses I

Nerses I the Great (Armenian: Ներսէս Ա Մեծ, romanized: Nersēs A Mets; died c. 373), also known as Nerses the Parthian (Ներսէս Պարթև, Nersēs Part’ev), was an Armenian Catholicos (or Patriarch) who lived in the fourth century. Nerses was the son of Atanagines and the Arsacid princess Bambishn. His paternal grandfather was Catholicos Husik, whose paternal grandfather was Saint Gregory the Illuminator, the founder of the Armenian Church. The main source for Nerses's life, the 5th-century Buzandaran Patmutʻiwnkʻ (traditionally attributed to Faustus of Byzantium), calls Bambishn a sister of King Tiran of Armenia, although this poses certain chronological and genealogical difficulties, as Atanagines's father Husik is said to have married the daughter of the same king. Additionally, Bambishn was a title borne by royal ladies in the Sasanian period, so this is probably a title rather than her actual name. Since the time of Gregory the Illuminator, Nerses's family had held the leadership of the Church in Armenia as their hereditary right, although this inheritance was temporarily interrupted when Nerses's father and uncle refused the patriarchate and instead pursued military careers. Nerses received a Hellenistic education in Caesarea in Cappadocia and presumably married there. His wife's name is not mentioned in the Buzandaran Patmutʻiwnkʻ, but a later Vita of Nerses, derivative of the Buzandaran Patmutʻiwnkʻ, reports that he married a Mamikonian princess called Sandukht, who died after bearing Nerses a son called Sahak (Isaac), who would later become catholicos. After the death of his wife, he pursued a military career and was appointed senekapet (literally 'chamberlain', but here perhaps signifying 'sword-bearer') to Arsacid king Arshak II. A few years later, having entered the ecclesiastical state, he was elected catholicos probably in 353 and confirmed in the office in Caesarea in accordance with tradition.