Gregorio di Narek. Dottore della Chiesa

Cardinal Angelo Amato in this volume traces the biography of St. Gregory of Narek, proclaimed Doctor of the Universal Church on April 12, 2015 by Pope Francis. Born in Andzevatsik around the year 950 he was a writer and bishop. He was ordained a priest in the monastery of Narek where he attended the school of Sacred Scripture and Patristica and where he spent his entire life, reaching the heights of holiness and mystical experience. His erudition was vast and he knew in Armenian translation both the writings of the Greek and Syriac Fathers, such as Irenaeus, Eusebius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, Aphraah, Ephraem, and the writings of the Armenian Fathers such as Moses of Khoren, Eznik, Korium, Elisha, and Young Mantakuni. His most famous work dates back to 1003 and is the Book of Lamentation containing 95 prayers for the various circumstances of life and for the different classes of people. The volume starts from the life and works of the saint and deals with petitions for doctorate, Christianity in Armenia, the orthodoxy of Armenian Christology, the originality of the liturgy and the Armenian ecumenical dynamics; the whole of his doctrine and spirituality, its universality and ecumenical relevance.