St. Gregory of Narek

Monk of Narek on Lake Van

St. Gregory of Narek was born around 950 in the region of Lake Van in historic Armenia. His father, Khosrov, was a bishop and scholar, and after the early death of his mother Gregory was entrusted to the monastery of Narek (Narekavank) on the lake's southern shore, then a flourishing school of Armenian learning under his kinsman Anania. There he was ordained a priest, taught theology, and spent virtually his whole life as a monk, dying at Narek around 1005.

The Book of Lamentations

Gregory was the greatest poet and mystic of the Armenian Church's golden age. He wrote a commentary on the Song of Songs, festal odes, and hymns, but his masterpiece is the Book of Lamentations, often simply called the 'Narek': ninety-five prayers he described as 'conversations with God from the depths of the heart.' In them the monk stands before God bearing the sins and sorrows of every human being, pleading for mercy with an honesty and beauty that Armenians have treasured for a thousand years; families kept the book beside the Bible, and tradition holds it was placed under the pillows of the sick as a source of healing and comfort.

Declared a Doctor of the Church

Gregory lived and died a monk of the Armenian Apostolic Church, centuries after that Church's separation from full communion, yet his sanctity has always been recognized across the divide; the Catholic Church inscribed him in the Roman Martyrology and the Armenian Catholic Church has long venerated him. Citing his universal spiritual stature, Pope Francis declared him a Doctor of the Church on April 12, 2015, during the Mass commemorating the centenary of the Armenian Genocide, making him the thirty-sixth Doctor and the first Armenian so honored.

Memorial in the Roman Calendar

In 2018 Pope Francis blessed a statue of St. Gregory in the Vatican Gardens, and in 2021 he added an optional memorial of the saint on February 27 to the General Roman Calendar. The monastery of Narekavank itself was destroyed in the twentieth century, but Gregory's tomb-shrine lives on in the devotion of Armenians worldwide, and his Book of Lamentations continues to be read as one of the great prayers of Christian literature. He is venerated as a patron of Armenia.

Significance

Through his prayers, Gregory of Narek gave voice to the human heart standing before God in sorrow, honesty, and hope. His Book of Lamentations, treasured by Armenians for a thousand years, speaks for every person in need of mercy, and his recognition as a Doctor of the Church honors a holiness that crossed lines of division between Churches. Christians everywhere can pray with him and learn to bring their whole selves, sins included, to a merciful God.