St. Hripsime and her companions

St. Gayane and her companions

According to tradition, the Hripsimian sisterhood was home to 37 virgins who lived as hermits in a Roman monastery around 300 A.D.  The Roman emperor saw a painting of Hripsime and fell desperately in love with her, vowing to make her his wife.

Not wanting to break her vows by being forced to marry the emperor, Hripsime and the other sisters followed their leader, Gayane, out of Rome.  They ended up in Armenia.  The Roman emperor asked Armenia's King Drtad to hunt for them and return the woman he wanted to marry.

Armenian soldiers found the women, but instead of sending Hripsime back to Rome, King Drtad fell for her beauty and decided she should be his wife.  She quickly declined and so the King pressured Gayane to convince Hripsime to marry him.

Instead of pushing Hripsime toward marriage, Gayane told her to stand firm in her faith and vow of chastity.  So, King Drtad had Gayiane tortured.  Still, she refused to encourage Hripsime to marry.

Because she continued to decline marriage, the King's forces cruelly tortured and eventually killed Hripsime, as well as the other sisters.  The Armenian forces cut out their tongues, pinned them to the ground, burned their bodies, tore them open with stones, and pierced their eyes.

The martyrdom of these women took place in the last year of St. Gregory the Illuminator's imprisonment in the deep pit.  When St. Gregory was released, he immediately picked up their relics, buried them, and built a church at the site.