Khosrovidukht was the daughter of King Khosrov II of Armenia[3] by a mother whose name is unknown. Her known sibling was her brother Tiridates III of Armenia who ruled Armenia from 287 to 330. The name Khosrovidukht was a dynastic name in the Arsacid royal house[2] as she was the namesake of her father and her paternal great-grandfather Khosrov I, a previous ruling Armenian King.[4]
Name
The name "Khosrovidukht" (Xosrovi-dowxt) is Parthian, meaning "daughter of Khosrov".[5]
Biography
In 252, her father and the rest of her family were assassinated by Anak, a Parthian agent on the orders of Ardashir I. After the capture and execution of Anak, the Roman authorities took her infant brother to be raised in Rome while Khosrovidukht was raised in Caesarea Mazaca, Cappadocia.[6]
Her foster parents were Awtay, a nobleman from the Amatuni family, and his wife from the Slkunik family.[7]
Khosrovidukht returned after Tiridates was restored to the Armenian throne by Diocletian in 287. The Armenian state religion at the time was Zoroastrianism. Armenian Christian legend says that after Tiridates killed a group of Christians, the Hripsimeyan nuns, and sent another Christian, Gregory the Illuminator to the Khor Virap dungeon,[8][9] he became mentally ill.[8]
Khosrovidukht was told in a dream[10] to free Gregory.[11]
When Khosrovidukht told her brother Tiridates about the dream, he ordered Gregory to be released.[11]
Khosrovidukht and her sister-in-law Ashkhen may have already accepted Christianity through the Hripsimeyan nuns and others in the Armenian Christian underground.[8] Cured of his illness in 301,[12] Tiridates then proclaimed Christianity as Armenia's official state religion, making Armenia the first country in the world to do so.[13] Gregory was then appointed Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church
and baptized Tiridates's family, court and army on the Euphrates river.[13][8]
Towards the end of her life, Khosrovidukht and Ashkhen retired to the castle of Garni.[3] Khosrovidukht may have died around 330.[8] She, Tiridates and Ashkhen are saints in the Armenian Apostolic Church and their feast day is on Saturday after the fifth Sunday after Pentecost.[9]
Tiridates, Ashkhen and Khosrovidukht in a painting from 1701
References
^Domar: the calendrical and liturgical cycle of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, Armenian Orthodox Theological Research Institute, 2002, p. 443.
^ abThe Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies, Iranian History: Armeno-Iranian Relations in Pre-Islamic Period By: Nina Garsoian, October 20, 2004
^Her name is the female variant of the Persian name Khosrov, which comes from the Parthian khusrav reputation and dukht daughter i.e. Khosrov’s daughter, see Khosrau
