History of Khor Virap

an","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN;mso-bidi-language: TA" lang="EN">During this period, the Roman Emperor Diocletian wanted to marry a beautiful girl and he sent others to search for the most beautiful woman. They found a girl named Rhipsime in Rome who was under the tutelage of Abbess Gaiaine in a Christian nunnery. When Rhipsime heard about the king's marriage proposal, she fled to Armenia to avoid the marriage. After a search was launched to locate the girl and punish the people who had helped her to escape, Tiridates located Rhipsime and brought her forcibly to his palace, trying to woo her. He was not successful against the strong defence put up by Rhipsime. He then ordered that she be dragged into his presence by putting a collar around her neck in hopes to persuade Rhipsime to agree to marry him.

However, what ensued was the persecution and murder of Rhipsime, Gaiaine and many Christians. Tiridates went mad and is "said to have behaved like a wild boar while torments fell on his household and demons possessed the people of the city." It was then that Tiridates's sister, Khosrovidhukt, had a vision in the night, where an angel told her about the prisoner Gregory in the city of Artashat who could end the torments with the words "when he comes he will teach you the remedies for all your ills”. People did not place much reliance on this dream vision as they thought that Gregory had probably died within days of his being cast into the pit. But Khosrovidhukt had the same dream repeatedly with a threatening message that if the dream's instructions were not followed, there