Grigor Narekatsi (Armenian: Գրիգոր Նարեկացի; anglicized as Gregory of Narek; c. 950 – 1003/1011) was an Armenian mystical and lyrical poet, monk, and theologian. He is venerated as a saint in the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic Churches and was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Francis in 2015.
The son of a bishop, Gregory was educated, ordained, and later stationed at Narekavank on the southern shores of Lake Van (modern Turkey). Scholars consider Gregory the most beloved and significant theological and literary figure of the Armenian religious tradition.
He is best known for his Book of Lamentations, a significant piece of mystical literature which serves as a confessional prayer book in many Armenian religious households. His works have inspired many Armenian literary figures and influenced Armenian literature throughout the ages.
Scholars place Gregory's birth and death dates circa 945–951 and 1003 or 1010–11, respectively. He lived in the Kingdom of Vaspurakan, a medieval Armenian kingdom, which is "notable for the high cultural level that it achieved." Vaspurakan, centered around Lake Van, is a region described by Richard Hovannisian as "the cradle of Armenian civilization".
Little is known about his life. He was born in a village on the southern shores of Lake Van, in what is now eastern Turkey, to Khosrov Andzevatsi, a relative of the Artsruni royal family. His mother died when he was little. Khosrov was ordained a bishop after being widowed and was appointed primate of the diocese of Andzevatsik. His father was suspected of pro-Byzantine Chalcedonian beliefs, a doctrine not accepted by the Armenian Apostolic Church, and was eventually excommunicated by Catholicos Anania Mokatsi for undermining the Armenian Church with his interpretation of the rank of Catholicos, the highest rank in Armenian church clergy, as being equivalent to that of a bishop, a lower rank in Christian churches, based on the works of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, a fifth-century Greek Christian theologian and mysticist. Grigor and his elder brother Hovhannes were sent to the Narekavank (lit. the monastery of Narek), where he was given religious education by Anania Narekatsi (Ananias of Narek). The latter was his maternal great-uncle, a celebrated scholar and the monastery's founder. Being raised in an intellectual and religious fervor, Grigor was ordained priest in 977 and taught others theology at the monastery school until his death.
Whether Gregory led a secluded life has become a debate among Armenian scholars. Both literary critic Arshag Chobanian and scholar Manuk Abeghian believe he did. In contrast, literary critic Hrant Tamrazyan argued that Gregory was very well aware of the secular world and his time, had a deep knowledge of both peasants and princes and the complexities of the world. Tamrazyan believes he could not have lived solely on literary ecstasy.
Gregory was buried inside the walls of the monastery of Narek. A rectangular-shaped chapel-mausoleum was built on his tomb, which survived until the mid-20th century, when the monastery, abandoned in the aftermath of the Armenian genocide, was destroyed by the Turkish authorities, and later replaced with a mosque.
The Book of Lamentations (Classical Armenian: Մատեան ողբերգութեան, Matean oghbergut'ean) is widely considered Gregory's masterpiece. It is often simply called Narek (Նարեկ). Completed towards the end of his life, c. 1002–03, the work has been described as a monologue, a personal lyric and confessional poem, mystical and meditative. It comprises 95 chapters and over 10,000 lines. Almost all chapters (except two) are titled "Words unto God from the Depths of My Heart". The chapters, which are prayers or elegies, vary in length, but all address God. The central theme is the metaphysical and existential conflict between Gregory's desire to be perfect, as taught by Jesus, and his realization that it is impossible and between the divine grace and his sense of one's unworthiness to receive that grace. However, the love and mercy of God's all-embracing, all-forgiving, and amazing grace compensate for man's unworthiness.
The book is considered a masterpiece of Christian spiritual literature. Helen C. Evans described it as "one of the world's great mystical poems." It has been described by Agop Jack Hacikyan et al. as the "most beloved work of Armenian literature." It has been historically kept in Armenian homes. Scholars have described its popularity among Armenians as second to the Bible. For centuries, Armenians have treasured the book as an enchanted treasure and have attributed to it miraculous powers. For instance, one passage has been read to the ill expecting a cure. Malachia Ormanian, scholar and Patriarch of Constantinople, wrote that Narek "written in a florid and sublime style, is regarded as a potent talisman against all kinds of dangers." In the 21st century, Dr. Armen Nersisyan, a professor of psychiatry, promotes the reading of the book with faith as a means of healing body and mind.
The book's first publication was attempted by Voskan Yerevantsi in Marseille, France, in 1673, but was censored by the Vatican. While the first complete commentary was published in Constantinople in 1745. The work has been translated into English, Russian, French, Arabic, Persian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian. There are three English translations of the book, with the first one appearing in 1977.
Commentary on the Song of Songs
Gregory's second most known extant work is a commentary on the Song of Songs (Մեկնութիւն երգոց երգոյն Սողոմոնի, Meknut'iun ergots' ergoyn Soghomoni), written in 977, the year he was ordained a priest. The commentary was written at the behest of prince Gurgen-Khachik Artsruni of Vaspurakan. Gregory makes frequent use of St. Gregory of Nyssa's Letters on the Song of Songs. The commentary contains explicit condemnation of marriage and sexuality practices by Tondrakians, an Armenian Christian sect named as heretics by the Armenian Apostolic Church. Gregory may have been commissioned to counter these heretical teachings. Armenian author Ara Baliozian describes the commentary as a prose masterpiece.
There is also a single extant manuscript of a commentary by Gregory on chapters 38 and 39 of the Book of Job. Gregory also wrote hymns, panegyrics on various holy figures, homilies, numerous chants and prayers that are still sung today in Armenian churches (example: Havun Havun).
Scholars have noted that Gregory often departs from the standards of the Armenian and Greek traditions of panegyrics and encomia and innovates in interesting and distinctive ways. Of particular importance are his two recensions of the encomium on the Holy Virgin, in which he affirms the doctrines of Mary's bodily Assumption (verap'okhumn), perpetual virginity, and perhaps the Immaculate Conception.
The encomium on the Holy Virgin was written as part of a triptych requested by the bishop Step'anos of Mokk'. The other two panegyrics forming this set are the History of the Holy Cross of Aparank, which commemorates the donation of a relic of the True Cross to the monastery of Aparank' by the Byzantine emperors Basil II and Constantine VIII, and the Encomium on the Holy Cross. By focusing on the cross, both of these panegyrics counter Tondrakian rejection of veneration of the cross and other material objects. Here again, as in the rest of Gregory's corpus, the saint defends orthodoxy against the Tondrakians and other heretical movements. Gregory also wrote a panegyric on St. Jacob of Nisibis, a fourth-century Syriac bishop who has been and remains today highly esteemed among Armenians. Gregory also has an encomium on the Holy Apostles.
Gregory also authored around two dozen tagher (lays or odes), which are the first documented religious poems in Armenian literature, and spiritual songs called gandz, both in verse and prose. Gregory also composed music for his odes, but they are not considered sharakans (chants).
Many of the festal odes and litanies as well as the panegyrics have been translated to English and annotated by Abraham Terian.