St. Isaac of Armenia (9 September): Butler's Lives of the Saints

Published 1 day ago

St. Isaac the Great—also known as Sahak the Parthian—helped preserve the Christian faith and give Armenia its sacred literature.

A descendant of St. Gregory the Illuminator and the son of Catholicos St. Nerses the Great, Isaac studied in Constantinople, married, and later became a monk following his wife’s death. When called to govern the Armenian Church, he inherited a nation divided between the Byzantine and Persian empires and a Church facing political pressure, pagan influence, internal disorder, and questions concerning ecclesiastical authority.

St. Isaac strengthened Church discipline, encouraged monastic life, established schools and hospitals, and rebuilt churches destroyed by the Persians. His most enduring work, however, came through his collaboration with St. Mesrop Mashtots.

After Mesrop developed the Armenian alphabet, they began translating the Bible into Armenian. This monumental achievement gave the Armenian people access to Scripture, preserved important Greek and Syriac Christian writings, encouraged a distinct national literature, and inaugurated the Golden Age of Armenian culture.

St. Isaac also helped form the Armenian liturgy. After enduring deposition and exile, he eventually resumed governing the Church and accepted the decrees of the Council of Ephesus. He died at approximately 92 years of age and is honored in the Armenian liturgy as “the Great.”

From Father Alban Butler’s Lives of the Saints for September 9.

St. Isaac the Great, pray for us!

0:00 St. Isaac of Armenia
0:17 Marriage and episcopacy in ancient Armenia
0:26 Descendant of St. Gregory the Illuminator
0:34 Reforming abuses within the episcopacy
0:43 Studies, marriage, and monastic life
0:51 A divided Armenia and troubled Church
1:07 Relations with Caesarea
1:16 Isaac recognized as Armenian primate
1:34 The beginning of a Golden Age
1:48 Completing St. Nerses’ reforms
1:57 Enforcing ecclesiastical discipline
2:06 The Gregorian succession ends
2:14 Monasteries, schools, hospitals, and churches
2:22 Resisting paganism and internal opposition
2:29 Theodosius II and Greek influence
2:51 Uniting Armenia’s Christian traditions
3:06 St. Mesrop creates the Armenian alphabet
3:15 Translating the Bible into Armenian
3:23 Preserving lost Christian writings
3:32 The birth of Armenian literature
3:40 Forming the national liturgy
3:47 Deposition and exile under Persian rule
4:02 The story of Theodosiopolis
4:18 Returning to ecclesiastical government
4:34 Accepting the Council of Ephesus
4:42 His death at approximately 92
4:51 Remembered as “the Great”

https://sensusfidelium.com/the-lives-of-the-fathers-martyrs-and-other-principal-saints/september/

Get Butler's Lives of the Saints here: https://loretopublications.idevaffiliate.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=102&url=1

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