Saint Hripsime Church is a seventh-century Armenian Apostolic church in the city of Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin), Armenia. It was built in 618 by Catholicos Komitas over the tomb of Hripsime, a Roman virgin and a key figure in the Christianization of Armenia.
Standing largely intact since its construction, the church has been widely admired for its architecture and proportions. Considered a masterpiece of classical Armenian architecture, it has influenced many other Armenian churches. It features innovations, namely trapezoidal niches and conical squinches, containing their first dated examples, a windowed drum, and the only example in Armenia of turrets at the base of the drum serving as anchors and buttresses. The two inscriptions left by Komitas constitute the second-earliest extant Armenian-language inscriptions. The church was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with other nearby churches, including Etchmiadzin Cathedral, Armenia's mother church, in 2000.
Setting and status
The church is located on a small natural elevation on the eastern outskirts of the town of Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin), adjacent to the main road connecting it to the capital Yerevan. Standing on an open plain, it was situated near the road to Artaxata, outside the historic walls of ancient Vagharshapat. It is now within an urban environment. Several major historic churches are situated in its vicinity, namely the cathedral of Etchmiadzin, its contemporary Saint Gayane Church, the ruined 7th century Zvartnots Cathedral, and the 17th century Shoghakat Church.
The church and the surrounding area cover an area of 6.2 hectares (15 acres) and is property of the Armenian Apostolic Church (Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin). Recognized as a national monument by the Soviet Armenian government, this designation was reaffirmed by the government of Armenia in 2002. Joint councils consisting of the Ministry of Culture and the Armenian Apostolic Church are responsible for regulating its conservation, rehabilitation, and usage. In 2000 the UNESCO inscribed St. Hripsime and the four aforementioned churches as a World Heritage Site.
It is one of Armenia's most visited monuments and a popular wedding venue, hosting 472 wedding ceremonies and 536 baptisms in 2013. It is often visited by Armenian and foreign dignitaries.
Background and foundation
Pre-Christian remains
Excavations conducted inside the church in 1958–59 uncovered three black tuff fragments of an ornamented Ionic cornice placed upside down beneath the supporting columns. These fragments were immediately identified as belonging to a pre-Christian Hellenistic structure—possibly a temple—with stylistic similarities to the cornice of the Garni Temple. Some scholars, including Alexander Sahinian, who oversaw the excavations following the initial discovery, argued that the fragments indicate the presence of a pagan temple on the site. Others propose that they came from a pagan building elsewhere in Vagharshapat and were later reused in the church's foundations. The excavated sections were covered with protective glass for public display.
Early Christian structures
According to the traditional account recorded by Agathangelos, Hripsime, a Roman virgin, and her companions (including Gayane), fled to Armenia to escape persecution by the Roman emperor Diocletian. In Armenia, Hripsime was tortured and killed by king Tiridates III after she rejected his advances. Following Tiridates's conversion to Christianity in the early fourth century (dated 301 or 314 AD), he and Gregory the Illuminator built a martyrium at the site of her martyrdom as an act of remorse. Agathangelos recounts that Gregory and Tiridates buried her in a sarcophagus, while Tiridates brought enormous stones from Mount Ararat to construct the martyriums of Hripsime and companions. Considered one of the earliest Christian martyriums, it is believed to have been partially buried underground, with an aboveground canopy. Its walls were made of stone, the roof of wood, and tiles used for covering.
The original martyrium was destroyed by Sasanian king Shapur II and his Armenian Zoroastrian ally Meruzhan Artsruni circa 363/364, along with Etchmiadzin Cathedral and other Christian sites. In 395, Catholicos Sahak Partev built a new chapel-martyrium, which the later historian Sebeos described as "too low and dark". Archaeological excavations in 1976–78, led by Raffi Torosyan and Babken Arakelyan, uncovered the foundations of a small single-nave basilica around 10 m (33 ft) east of the current church, which is likely the remains of this late fourth century structure. Notably, Christian-style burials were also unearthed, which both scholars and the Armenian Church identified as Hripsime and her companions. A letter from The Book of Letters, dated 608, mentions a priest named Samuel of St. Hripsime, indicating that the chapel was an active church at the time.
Current church and Komitas's inscriptions
The seventh-century historian Sebeos recounts that Catholicos Komitas (r. 615–628) demolished the small martyrium and constructed the present church in the 28th year of the reign of the Sassanian king Khosrow II (r. 590–628), which has been calculated as the year 618, a dating which has been near-unanimously accepted. Vagharshapat was under Roman (Byzantine) rule at the time. Two inscriptions attest to Komitas's role in its construction. A number of scholars maintain that Komitas, also a hymnographer, may have been the architect of the church. Murad Hasratyan suggests that his identification as "builder" in one of the inscriptions indicates that Komitas himself was the architect. One of the most important monuments of medieval Armenia, it represented a "major construction of real artistic significance".
The church contains two engraved inscriptions in the erkat‘agir uncial script recording Catholicos Komitas's role in its construction. These inscriptions, conventionally dated to 618 and 628 respectively, are the second oldest known Armenian inscriptions after the Tekor Church inscription (c. 478–490).
The first inscription (202 × 60 cm) is located on the western wall's exterior, now largely concealed by the belfry. Recording Komitas's personal responsibility for the construction, it reads: "I Komitas sacristan of saint Hṙi{w}p‘simē was summoned to the throne of saint Grēgor. I built the temple of these holy martyrs of Christ."
The second inscription (150 × 35 cm) appears on the eastern apse's interior—behind the altar. It was revealed under plaster during restoration works in 1898, when it was lightly damaged. Imploring Christ to recognize Komitas's labors, it reads: "Christ God, remember Komitas kat‘ołikos of Armenia, the builder of saint Hṙip‘simē".
Later history
Decline and major restoration
Not much is known about the church's history in the medieval period. The tenth century Catholicos Hovhannes Draskhanakerttsi described it as a wonderful and splendid structure. Inscriptions indicate that it was intermittently active, including one from 1296 recording the release of the monastery from tithe and other taxes on cotton by local rulers, and another from 1302 on the lintel of the western entrance recording the donation of 1,000 silver coins.
Arakel of Tabriz, a contemporary, recounted the state of the church in the early 17th century and provided details of its restoration (along with St. Gayane) by Catholicos Pilipos (r. 1633–1655). Following the deportation of Armenians to Iran by Shah Abbas in 1604–05, it was "without inhabitants and fences". Abandoned and defenseless, the church was also heavily dilapidated by that time. During periods of neglect, neatly cut facing stones were quarried from the church. Arakel recounts that it had no doors, no altar, the roof and walls had crumbled, and the foundations were shaken and dug up, while the interior was full of manure as livestock were driven into the church. According to Arakel, two Catholic Augustinian missionaries stole Hripsime's relics in 1610, provoking outrage among Armenians. With the help of Shah Abbas I of Persia, the relics were recovered and returned.
The restoration of Hripsime under Catholicos Pilipos "took three years, from start to finish, for the work began in the [Armenian] year 1100 (1651) and was finished in the year 1102 (1653) with great expenditures and tremendous labor." This restoration encompassed the pediments, the roof of the dome, and saw the construction of a porch/portico or an open narthex (gavit) in front of the western entrance (upon which a belfry was added in 1790).
Since its restoration in 1653, the church had a regular congregation. Subsequent Catholicoi, Eghiazar (r. 1681–1691) and Nahapet (r. 1691–1705), further contributed to its revitalization by adding auxiliary buildings and sponsoring manuscript production. Six inscriptions engraved on its walls in the 1720s record the donations of salt, oil, incense, rice, candles, wine. In the 17th and 18th centuries, monks at St. Hripsime were provided bread and clothing from the monastery of Echmiadzin, but the monastery also possessed its own farmland and livestock.
Later additions and renovations
Catholicos Simeon I of Yerevan (r. 1763–1780) raised a new cross on its dome in 1765, and fortified the monastery in 1776 with a cob perimeter-wall, along with corner towers and an arched entrance built out of stone on the northern side. In 1790, Catholicos Ghukas Karnetsi (r. 1780–1799) added a rotunda-shaped belfry on the porch/narthex built by Pilipos in 1653.
Under Catholicos Mkrtich Khrimian, the church underwent considerable renovation in 1898. Earlier, in 1894–95, a two-story residence for monks was built inside the monastery walls, and the eastern and southern sections of the cob walls were replaced with stone walls.
Early Soviet period
A February 1921 decree issued by Ashot Hovhannisian, Soviet Armenia's People's Commissar for Education, nationalized the church and placed it under the Cultural-Historical Institute, but it was returned to the Mother See in January 1922. In 1926, vardapet Khachik Dadyan, abbot of the monastery, undertook independent investigation in its grounds without government authorization leading to his expulsion and imprisonment. Dadyan had excavated around its foundations, causing significant damage by exposing them to rainwater and snow. Part of the facing stones collapsed in 1932. The church remained endangered for a decade until restoration works began in 1936. Its foundations were reinforced and its roof, dome, the monastery walls and buildings were restored and the surrounding area underwent beautification. The restoration was initiated by the architect Alexander Tamanian, and was supervised by the archeologist Karo Ghafadaryan.
The church was (re)nationalized by the early 1930s and it, along with adjacent buildings, were transformed into a repository of antiquities called the Vagharshapat Archaeological Museum. After its restoration, the church itself was turned into a museum in 1936 housing diverse archaeological exhibits from the nearby Zvartnots Cathedral, including an Urartian inscription, jars from Karmir Blur, two Ionic capitals from the Garni Temple, frescoes from the demolished Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Yerevan, stone inscriptions and fragments, clay vessels, and photographs. The museum, also described as a lapidarium, operated for nearly a decade. The church and monastery were returned to the Mother See in the spring of 1945 after locum tenens Catholicos Gevorg Chorekchyan's April 1945 appeal to Joseph Stalin. Its collection of more than 110 items were transferred mostly to the History Museum of Armenia. Its living quarters were used by the accommodation department of the town council and the militsiya as late as 1951.
Restorations and revitalization
Extensive restoration and archaeological excavations were undertaken at the church in the early years of Catholicos Vazgen I's tenure (r. 1955–1994), alongside similar efforts at Etchmiadzin Cathedral. Vazgen I, who called it "the most magnificent of our ancient shrines," directed much efforts for its revitalization. Restoration began in 1955 and concluded in 1962, with reconsecration held in September 1962. Unlike other historic churches restored under state auspices, this project was overseen by the Church and funded by Italian-Armenian benefactors Onnik Manoukian and Yervant Hussisian, who contributed $15,000 (equivalent to $172,000 in 2025) for the church and an additional $6,000 (equivalent to $65,000 in 2025) for the surrounding walls.
The church grounds were enhanced with tuff block paving and a basalt drinking fountain designed by architect Rafayel Israyelian. Israyelian also designed a new altar table (1960) and chandelier (1967). The altar featured an altarpiece of the Virgin Mary by Hovhannes Minasyan, which has been hailed as "one of the finest works in the history of Armenian painting."