Aristaces I

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Aristaces I (Armenian: Արիստակէս Ա) was the second Catholicos of the Armenian Church, serving from 325 until his death in 333. He was the younger son of Gregory the Illuminator, the founder of the Armenian Church, and his wife Julitta (or Mariam) of Armenia. Most of what we know comes from a 5th‑century Armenian history by Agathangelos.

Aristaces was born in Caesarea of Cappadocia. As a child, he and his mother joined a monastery after his father left for Armenia. He grew up under a monk named Nicomachus, who sent him to live as an ascetic in the desert. Around 325, when Gregory wished to give up the Catholicosate to become a hermit, King Tiridates III brought Aristaces and his brother Vrtanes to Armenia to lead the church.

In 325, Aristaces went to the First Council of Nicaea as Armenia’s representative and helped bring back the Nicene canons; his signature appears among the bishops who attended. Some legends say he traveled with Gregory and Tiridates to Emperor Constantine the Great, but scholars consider that tale legendary.

The circumstances of Aristaces’s death are unclear. Faustus of Byzantium says he died “a confessor,” but gives no details, while Movses Khorenatsi claims he was murdered in Sophene by a governor named Archilaeus after reprimanding him. Burial sites also vary: some say Til in Acilisene, others say Tordan in Daranali, where Gregory is said to be buried.