In honor of the Armenian Church’s “Feast of St. Ghevont and His Companions” (Feb. 6, 2024), read the oration Ghevont delivered before Vartan and his 66,000-man army, on the eve of the Battle of Avarayr in A.D 451—retold in English for a modern readership.
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On this day the saintly priest Ghevont came forward with a request to address the army. Catholicos Hovsep gladly assented, as did his fellow priests, the nakharars, and Vartan’s officers. So Ghevont went among the assembled troops, speaking in a loud voice as he paced back and forth through the lines.
“Think back on our mighty ancestors,” he began, “who lived in their respective generations before the birth of the Son of God. Think back even further, to the very beginning of the human story: when through the work of the Prince of Evil, we were expelled from Paradise and subjected to unending hardship for the transgression we had freely committed. We rashly provoked the wrath of our merciful Creator, and He passed a just judgment on all of His Creation. But our transgressions multiplied, and magnified—until God opened the heavens to let the upper waters pour down, and cracked the earth’s firmament to let the lower waters gush forth, and the whole of the earth became engulfed in payment for our wickedness. And God in His judgment was perfectly justified.
“Yet even then, the Lord softened His righteous anger for the sake of one, perfect specimen of the human race: Noah. From his surviving line, the future race of man grew, and multiplied. His descendant Abraham was another who proved virtuous in the face of trial, offering back to God by his own hand the precious gift God had given to him. And by that sacrifice, God chose Abraham as the pattern for the great work that was to follow: for He foresaw the coming of the Son of God, whose miraculous conception, and whose sacrificial death, would abolish the power of Death for all time. And if Christ struck down Death by death, there is no fear in dying with Him. For in sharing the death of Christ, the life of Christ will also be shared with us.
“Think back, my brave friends, on the greatness of Moses,” Ghevont continued. Here was another, he said, whom God chose to deliver his people from bondage to a wicked king—and whom Heaven reckoned the greatest of all prophets, not only for destroying his foreign enemies, but for striking against his own kind when they betrayed the Lord with the Golden Calf.
Likewise Ghevont recalled the Biblical names of Phinehas, the Hebrew priest who put to the spear a fellow Israelite who had fallen into the arms of pagan immorality; the prophet Elijah, who slaughtered eight hundred priests of the pagan god Baal in the midst of their idolatry; the God-beloved King David, who as a shepherd boy killed Goliath—“that great mountain of flesh”—scattering the alien enemy and rescuing his entire nation; and the Israelite commanders Joshua, Gideon, Jephthah, and others, who struck down entire heathen armies, and purified their homeland of the stain of idolatry. “All of these,” Ghevont said, “performed deeds in their respective ages to defend their holy beliefs—and found praise from men, and vindication from God.”
“This is the same Lord we serve today—for He is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever. In His immutable nature, God does not change—as He taught us through the mouths of the prophets: ‘I am what I am—the same from the beginning to eternity. I do not bestow My glory on any other, nor My approval on graven images.’”
“But you know this already, my brothers. So don’t lose heart, but instead meet the enemy before us and attack with firm conviction. We live in double hope: for if we die, then we gain life in heaven; and if we cause others to die, then we gain the earthly life we now enjoy. Recall the words of the Apostle, regarding Christ the Lord: ‘Though bliss itself could have been His, He chose instead to obediently endure death—even death on the cross. And so God exalted Him even higher, bestowed on Him a name above every name, so that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow: in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.’”
The Leader of Our Salvation is Here
Ghevont looked into the eyes of the soldiers near him, and could see they were rapt in attention to his words. Seeing that they were trying to weigh the dearness of mortal life against the glory of eternal life through martyrdom, he spoke directly to those concerns. “We all know the ‘great names’ of our age, as the world reckons them. Men who have acquired power, wealth and success, who live their days in luxury, who take their pleasures from the transitory things of living. Yet it seems to me that they are blind to the true meaning of Life. Was there any evil they refused to commit, to get where they are? Indeed, their wealth is built over the plundering of the poor, their marriages are founded on lewdness. Having rejected the Life of Truth, they worship as their god anything that gives them pleasure.
“Let us not make their dark mistake! Though the world exalts them, we reckon them the most miserable and luckless of men—for through their willful blindness they will never find the road of Truth. As for us, let us open our eyes, and step out of the darkness, and into the Light of Heaven.
“The leader of our salvation is here! He faced death courageously, and by that example taught His disciples, who followed in His path. And today, you too are with them, armored by your faith—facing an enemy whose true commander is Satan! And just as our Lord did, somehow you, too, will defeat both enemies! To the world’s eyes, it seemed that He had suffered the ultimate defeat of Death. But in reality, He had won the most complete victory imaginable—overthrowing the Adversary, winning the war, scattering the enemy, gathering the spoils, freeing the captives, and lavishing rewards on all His true friends, as each deserved!”
Here Ghevont halted to catch his breath. His voice was hoarse, and his whole body ached from the fiery gestures that accompanied his sermon, and from the long strides that he had paced through the lines of soldiers. Now he had made his way back to the front, to stand before the leaders of the military expedition. Ghevont knew that the Holy Spirit, Who had been speaking through him all this time, had finished what He had to say. But there was one thing more that Ghevont, on his own behalf, and on behalf of his brother priests, wished to impart to the troops.
“Think back one final time,” he said, “to the battles you’ve fought in the past.” His voice was softer now, more like a man’s than an angel’s. “How common it has always been for us priests to be in the camp, to lead your prayers in the hour before battle. And then, by your grace, we would retreat to a safe place, while you soldiers undertook the terrible task of war. But I want you to know that on this day, the bishops and priests, the deacons and acolytes, the singers of Psalms and readers of Scripture—every officer of the holy church goes forward with you into battle, to attack by your side, and strike a blow against the enemies of Truth. We will all face death together; and in so doing, perhaps we clergy will find dying preferable to killing. But no matter. We cannot witness your heroic physical courage without envisioning the stoning of the prophets, the torments of the Apostles, the martyrdom of the whole multitude of saints—those in the past, the present, and the future, unto millions of souls. By their blood the church was established; heaven and earth bowed in their honor. Now you, too, have joined this glorious legion. Your sons and daughters down through the ages will remember every heroic sacrifice made this day, until the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus.”
It was night when Ghevont finished, and when he gave the benediction the entire Armenian army shouted, “Amen.” By torchlight the deacons dressed a table in linen cloths, and laid a sanctified altar stone atop it, so the priests could celebrate the holy liturgy. Alongside it they prepared a font of water, and all through the night any troops who had not been baptized came forward to accept the sacrament of Baptism. With the dawn, the entire company received the sacrament of Holy Communion, and in the rosy light of early morning the soldiers looked as if they were clothed in their Easter Sunday finery. Their faces, too, radiated joy and confidence, rather than the expressions of troubled hearts.
And in this uplifted spirit the army of Vartan prayed: “Lord, if we are to die, let it be a righteous death. Let our blood be shed in the manner of the sainted martyrs. Let God accept our willing sacrifice, and never deliver His church into heathen hands.”
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By Christopher H. Zakian, from an upcoming book retelling Yeghishe’s epic chronicle of the Vartanantz war.
Pictured above: A detail from “The Battle of Vartanantz,” the monumental mural by the late, great Krikor Khanjian.