Other translated hagiographical texts

The Martyrdom of the Holy Rhipsime and Gayane and Their Companions And in those times, when Diocletian the Caesar was seeking a wife, he sent throughout all his dominions painters truly of the age upon a tablet, so that as the age and the beauty of the face and the form of the eyebrows might be according to her beauty, whoever she might be, they might bring her. At that time, in the city of Rome, they found a refuge of virgins, separated from all, eaters of seeds, pure and immaculate and holy women, believers in Christ, who day and night and at all times gave glory and praise to God. And their prayer was heard by God and was offered up to Him, whose leader was named Gayane, and her nursling, a daughter of the servants of God, whose name was Rhipsime.

And when those mighty ones approached and entered the abode of those holy virgins, and beheld that well-wrought beauty of Rhipsime, they were amazed and marvelled at the comeliness of her youth upon her, they depicted her upon tablets and brought her before the Caesar. And when he beheld that beauty and well-wrought comeliness of Rhipsime, he was inflamed with a desire of love and marvelled at her with desire, and at that same hour of joy he hastened eagerly with joy to accomplish that wedding. At that time he sent messengers to every part of the lands and summoned all with the wedding-gifts. Now those who had been summoned came early to accomplish that joy of the wedding, prepared according to that law, as is the custom of the crowned ones. When those virgins beheld those hidden arrows of the devil shot at them, for as is the hidden custom of shooting at the holy ones of Christ, so openly did that king find a vessel of wickedness, as in that paradise the serpent was the deceiver and seduced that first woman, so now this wicked king. He was a persecutor and thereby fights against the churches and the servants of God.

But the king grew proud and was puffed up with arrogance, for the devil tempted him, and he raised a great persecution against the churches of God and desired to worship the soulless images of gold, those vain things of wood and stone, and that abominable service. But the blessed Gayane, together with the holy Rhipsime and the other companions, remembered the vow of chastity and the rule of that service; they were zealous for chastity, they lamented and wept over the king's act of depiction, they grieved, they prayed and besought from the merciful God that he might help and deliver them from the trial that had befallen them. They prayed and spoke thus: "Lord of lords and God of gods, eternal God, God of the heavens, who dwell in that unapproachable light, who have strengthened all things by your word, who have created heaven and earth and all their adornment, who...

You made man from the earth and set him wisely over the whole earth, and you made him a helper to all those who serve you. [Paragraph/Section: 9] “Help us also, O Lord, in this struggle which confronts us, that we may overcome that enemy and the cunning of the devil, so that your name, O Lord, may be magnified and the horn of your Church be raised up, that we may abide in your kingdom by keeping your commandment, and that the oil of our lamps may not be diminished, and that the lamps of the faith of the vow of our purity may not be extinguished, and that the darkening and destructive darkness may not overtake us on our enlightened paths, and that our feet may not be turned away from your shining places, and that the pupils of our eyes may not be blinded from seeing the radiance and shining truth of yours, and that the bird may not snatch away the seed of life which your only-begotten son, our Lord Jesus Christ, sowed among us, and that the apostate may not seize the radiance of this your holy flock, and that the deceiving wolf may not snatch away the lamb from your flock from among these promised ones, for we are the flocks of the holy apostolic Church.” [Paragraph/Section: 10] “O Lord our God, who sent forth

Only your only-begotten Son, who came and filled all the ends of the heavens with the spirit of knowledge, so that all might be called by the name Israel, which is interpreted as “God-seer,” and we have heard that he said, “Even if they drive you from city to city, you will not exhaust the cities of Israel until my coming.” [Paragraph/Section: 11] “And now, O Lord, look upon us, who beseech you, that we may not be defiled by the lawlessness and filth of the pagans, and do not allow our purity to be scattered like harlots who are entangled by mindless dogs; and do not allow this pearl of virginity to be trampled by swine; and may the harshness of many waters not overwhelm us, and may that wind that comes like a whirlwind not consume us; and may the foundation of the holy Church not be shaken, which many righteous ones built upon that firm rock, whose consummation was accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ through his incarnation, and through the shedding of his blood, through his death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, and through his sitting at the right hand of your divinity, which was already with you from the beginning.

And now, O Lord, look down from the holiness of Your heaven, and let us not be like that house which was built upon sand, which, when the winds came upon it, fell; and its fall was great. But strengthen us with truth and with that gospel of peace, and lead us by Your will, and make us worthy together with those five virgins whose lamps did not go out at that wedding, and may the night be as day for us in the radiance of the glory of Your face shining upon us. Shelter us under the cover of Your wings, so that we too may be deemed worthy to reach the resting place of Your will. And make us worthy to drink the cup of courage and to receive the crown on that day of Your righteous judgment, when You appear in glory.

And after this, the holy Gayane and Hripsime, with the immaculately gathered congregation of virgins, departed as fugitives, so that they might preserve their own heads holy from those defiled and evil and polluted ones of lawlessness, so that they might place greater hope in that life eternal with the martyrs who were deemed worthy to receive the crown, so that they might be freed from those prepared torments and be deemed worthy to stand at the right hand with those for whom are promised unfading crowns, adorned with those five wise virgins, enlightened by good works in that beauty of the paradise of the bridegroom, in that eternal general assembly of the righteous, in the bosoms of Abraham, in those unceasing joys, so that they might be partakers, as the Lord said: "He who abandons his dwelling for the sake of my name, at my second coming he shall inherit eternal life." For it is not from the death of this world that we flee, but from the defilement of that lawlessness; and it is not that we do not give our bodies to be tormented, but that our purity may not be trampled, and that we may release our souls holy and undefiled from that lawlessness and from that defiled and polluting man.

Therefore, we give our heads to hardship and torment, to torture and death, for the sake of the name of our Lord, that we may receive that crown of righteousness. Therefore, we abandon this earth on which we were born, its fruit, possessions, and our own relatives and tribes, according to the word of the Lord, who said to the apostles, as to those appointed with them as co-heirs by the labor of courage, that we might see God. [Section 14] At that time, they set out and arrived in the land of Armenia, in the village of Ararat, in the city of Valenshia, which is called New City, in the dwelling place of the kings of the Armenians. And they entered and dwelt in those presses which were on the eastern side of the vineyard. And they were nourished by purchase from the merchants of that city, and they had nothing with them, except that one of them was a nurse and made a necklace of manna and wove for them a daily rochik.