By Knarik O. Meneshian

The church of St. Hripsime, located on the eastern side of the city of Echmiadzin, once known as Vagharshabad and recently renamed Vagharshabad, is located approximately one mile from Echmiadzin Cathedral, and about 14 miles from Yerevan. King Trdat III reigned at Vagharshabad at the end of the third and into the fourth centuries.

The church was built in honor of the nun Hripsime (meaning of royal birth), who along with the abbess Gayane and 35 other Christian nuns from Rome were killed on orders of King Trdat III before his conversion to Christianity by St. Gregory the Illuminator.

Upon the king’s conversion, Christianity was proclaimed as Armenia’s state religion in 301 AD making Armenia the first Christian nation. As a result of their martyrdom, the Roman nuns Hripsime and Gayane were elevated to sainthood by the Armenian Church.

Today, as one walks past the deteriorating walls that surround the ancient church, then climbs up the stairs to the church itself, one is immediately engulfed in the serene and simple beauty of this historic site.

Even the summer flowers in the carefully tended gardens bow in reverence to this sacred place. According to Lawrence Cone’s book, Armenian Church Architecture, the St. Hripsime Church is considered one of the “oldest historical monuments of Armenian architecture, and was the second church built by St. Gregory the Illuminator during the first quarter of the 4th century. It was replaced in 395 with a small chapel built by Catholicos Sahag Bartev. Catholicos Komitas of Agtz tore down this low and dark chapel where he found the remains of St. Hripsime and her martyred virgin companions.

“He rebuilt the present church edifice in 618… further repaired during the period 1633-55 by Catholicos Philips, and a belfry was added to the west front of the church building in 1790… Minor repairs were made at the end of the 19th century with additional repairs made in 1936… Hripsime and her companions are buried under the altar apse.”

In his book, Armenia, Travels and Studies, H. F. B. Lynch wrote, “St. Hripsime is the most impressive religious building” that he had seen.

Entering the high-domed church, built of dark, ash-colored tufa stone, the scent of burning candles mingled with the sounds of soft chanting permeates the air.

One is both awed and humbled by this ancient sanctuary, by the large khatchkar or stone cross that stands at one end of the church and looks like a piece of exquisite needlework, by the young cleric, attired in bright vestments, standing with his head bowed at the foot of the alter reading and chanting from the Holy Book.

Then, as he finishes, the Sisters of the Soorp Hripsimyants Order, dressed in black, quietly approach the foot of the alter and do the same. The Sisters, five of them, live in the vanadoon or monastery, and they serve the vanahayr or abbot. According to Sister Datevik, “Our Order was established three years ago, and so our direction has not yet been determined by Echmiadzin. That will be decided in the future.

“So, for now, we pray, clean the church, the vanadoon, the property, and from time to time we visit the gaghoot or neighborhood families, particularly the women and children. But, our first duty is prayer. Some day, we hope to be like the order of the Armenian Catholic nuns, the Anarad Hghutyun (Immaculate Conception) Order.”

After purchasing candles from the Sisters, my husband and I said prayers as we lit them, including one for Armenia and all her people there and one for Armenians all over the world. When we finished, Sister Datevik took us to see St. Hripsime’s tomb. We followed her past the altar and down some narrow steps.

In the small, dim room we stood in reverence in front of the martyred saint’s tomb before making our offerings, and then we left with the Sister, climbing the stairs back up to the church, where it had grown quiet. Everyone had left.

As we made our way into the courtyard, two of the Sisters were working in the intense, summer heat.

One was sweeping the grounds, while another was beating a red carpet, scattering dust in the air. The other Sisters, we were told, were preparing the mid-day meal at the vanadoon for the vanahayr.

As I watched the women work, I remembered an article I had read in the April 1982 issue of Hye Sharzhoom about women who had served the Armenian Church. The article by Yedvard Gulbekian, titled “Women in the Armenian Church,” described their role. Unfortunately, because of the Armenian Genocide, this very interesting segment of Armenia’s past has nearly been forgotten.

The author writes, “Its existence was brought to light in 1974 during an historical exhibition in Tehran. This carefully prepared display of Armenian costumes through the ages, which was later published in book form, included the vestments of a 19th century Armenian deaconess from Constantinople. Yet, such a significant item attracted little attention. The Acts of the Apostles mention several women who assisted Saint Paul in his mission to the pagan world. The conversion of Armenia is closely associated with the saints Hripsime and Gayane, while that of neighboring Georgia became common in the church. For instance, the cathedral of St. Sohpia in Constantinople was allotted forty deaconesses in the 7th century.”

The author continues to explain, “It should be said that members of the deaconate are fully ordained ministers of the church. They may conduct services, baptize, marry and bury, but since they are not priests they cannot celebrate the Eucharist.

“That deaconesses were not in minor orders of the clergy is indicated by the circumstances that they were ordained by bishops, and by a rite similar to that for the ordination of men, and they were subject to the bishop’s court. Deaconesses served in the orthodox churches until the 12th century. The order was revived by the Maronites in Lebanon in the 18th century and by the Roman Catholics earlier this century.

“But the Church of Armenia, which had women ministers until their demise as a consequence of the Ittihad party during the first world war, has forgotten that they ever existed….The late Nicolas Zernov, a prolific writer on church affairs, wrote in 1939 how impressed he had been when personally present at the Eucharist in the Armenian Church of St. Stephen in Tiflis ‘where a woman deacon fully vested brought forward the chalice for the communion of the people.’”