St. Nerses I the Great (also spelled Narses) was an Armenian Patriarch who was the son of At'anagenes and his mother was the Arsacid Princess Bambish, a sister of King Tigranes VII (Tiran) and a daughter of King Khosrov III. His paternal grandfather was St. Husik I whose paternal grandfather was St. Gregory the Illuminator.
St. Nerses spent his youth in Caesarea where he eventually married a Mamikonian princess called Sanducht who bore him a son called Sahak, who would become another Patriarch in Armenia. After the death of his wife, St. Nerses was appointed sword-bearer to Arsacid king Arsaces II (Arshak II). A few years later, having entered the ecclesiastical state, he was elected Patriarch in 353 AD.
His patriarchate marks a new era in Armenian history. Until that point, the Church had been more or less identified with the royal family and the nobles; St. Nerses brought it into closer connection with the people. At the Council of Ashtishat he promulgated numerous laws on marriage, fast days, and divine worship. He built schools and hospitals, and sent monks throughout the land to preach the Gospel.
St. Nerses held a synod at Ashtishat that, among other things, forbade people to marry their first cousin and forbade mutilation and other extreme actions in mourning. Some of these reforms drew upon him the king's displeasure, and he was exiled, supposedly to Edessa. It was probably at some point during the latter part of Arshak's reign that Nerses went to Constantinople to ensure the emperor's support of Armenia against the Persians. According to historian Faustus of Byzantium, Roman emperor Valens became outraged at St. Nerses for condemning his following of the teachings of Arius and sent St. Nerses into exile. While St. Nerses was in exile in Xad, he was the leader of the church in Armenia.
Upon the accession of pro-Arian king Papas (Pap) in 369, St. Nerses returned to his see. Papas proved a dissolute and unworthy ruler and Nerses forbade him entrance to the church. Under the pretence of seeking reconciliation, Papas invited Nerses to his table and reportedly poisoned him in 373 AD.
According to Armenian tradition, St. Nerses was also a prophet and foretold near the end of time an Age of Peace will occur when infidels are subdued by the rise of a Roman Empire, aka, a Christian Roman Empire of the West just before the appearance of the Antichrist . This would be in complete keeping with the Great Monarch prophecies as this great Christian King of the West is destined to subdue all heresies and bring in the last and greatest Age of Peace before the Antichrist.
I've also found a source that says the Armenian Church believed in this prophecy so much during the Middle Ages, that even after the knights sacked Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade the Armenians still hoped the Crusaders would liberate Jerusalem from the Saracen Muslim infidels according to the prophecy of St. Nerses. (Source: Robert W. Thomson, 'The Crusaders Through Armenian Eyes', in 'The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World'-', Dumbarton Oaks, 2001, p. 77)
However, the Armenians of the Middle Ages didn't know like we do now that the Great Monarch prophecies were not destined to be fulfilled then.
The only text of the prophecy I could find by or attributed to St. Nerses translated into English was in a book by an author attempting to prove the Antichrist is nothing more than the product of textual legend-building, however, the author also gave the text attributed to St. Nerses since he mentions the Antichrist! So, despite the anti-Scripture aim of the book, it did provide the text I was searching for. Of course, the text could have been altered over the centuries, (which is why this post is marked ?? for discernment'), however, as it corresponds the other early Roman Empire / Great Monarch prophecies, it is included.
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According to the text I found, St. Nerses prophesied the following on his deathbed:
“After this the liberation of all the lands of Christendom from the Aryan hosts shall be wrought by the Romans. (i.e Roman Empire) And then the earth shall repose in goodly paths for long epochs, and shall become like a garden full of all things. The lawless shall be repulsed, and shall fall under the yoke of slavery to the Romans. And men will lament the past, and the goods which then failed them. After that shall be manifested the son of perdition, the Antichrist.” (Source: W. Bousset,”The Antichrist Legend”, London: Hutchinson, 1895, p. 253)
(OBSERVATIONS: “And men will lament the past, and the goods which then failed them.” The prophecies by other mystics point out the great peace will be a spiritual one and and the peoples of the earth will return to a simplistic way of life, i.e such as cottage industries, living off the land, etc. People will return to the countrysides and the earth will prove very abundant in harvests, etc. There will be little in the way of the huge corporate mega-millionare / billionaire lifestyles we see now. This passage by St. Nerses seems to indicate that despite living in a great age of peace people will 'lament' that the old days of sinful hedonism are no more and wish to go back to all the materialistic riches and goods that failed them even back then before the peace. The Antichrist will then make his appearance.)
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UPDATE! (Oct. 21, 2020)
I have since found a second text attriuted to St. Nerses, however, conisdering the lapse of centuries, this prophecy could have been added to and could be a 'pesudo-Nerses' prophecy. Nevertheless, this is in keeping with the prophecy as passed down by the Armenians, therefore I will include it and leave it for discernment. In the medieval period, they did believe the Franks (i.e. the French) as representative of the Western Christian Roman Empire were destined to release them from oppressors from the Great East.
This is in keeping with the rest of the Great Monarch prophecies, and, as we have seen from approved mystics and visions, the old prophecies are indeed true—the chosen Great Monarch is from the last of the French Kings and will be a Bourbon, and will free France after it has become Muslim.
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The prophecy is addressed to Armenian Christians:
“Your limits (Armenia) will be attacked and invaded by foreign enemies and your kingdom will be destroyed like that of the Israelites. You will be enslaved and maltreated with hunger, and you will not be able to free your neck from the yoke of slavery. Foreign peoples will rule over your lands and devour the fruit of your sweat in your presence. You will be dispersed in the way that the wind disperses the leaves of the trees: you will be despised and treated without any account like the water that is thrown into the street. Your kingdom and your priesthood will be abolished and destroyed, and you will go wandering and lost in the world, without your God that you will no longer know, like a private (i.e hidden) flock of a shepherd. The impregnable walls of your cities and the strong rocks will be destroyed by the Tartars* to the ground, and by them you will be little less than eaten alive. Bishops' houses, seminaries, and holy places will be destroyed or converted into rooms of those innumerabel infidels.
But after this the day will come when the regions subject to such barbarous rule, freed from their yoke by the powerful Roman nation, called Franks; (i.e. France) and from then on the peoples of the earth will enjoy a long and profound peace, following the paths of virtue, loving each other with truth, generously helping poor brothers, preserving and lavishing the most lively solicitude on the sick. , both in the hospitals that will then be erected, as well as at home, and building and restoring the temples of the Lord; the infidels will be driven to distant regions, and in turn placed under the mighty rule of the ChristiansRomans, in such a way that everyone will cry out then full of admiration and joy: «Wretched are the dead who did not see these times so happy and joyful, in such a beautiful and universal peace! »
(Source: “Las profecias en relación al estado actual y al destino futuro del mundo, sobre el fin de la revolución, Imperio del Gran Monarca y triunfos de la iglesia católica”, Imp. M. Carruez, Lérida, Spain, 1871, pp- 70-71)
(* Tartars: historically speaking, Tartary was the vast region from north and central Asia to the Pacific. It also included a huge part of Siberia. So this could indicate an Asian, Mongolian, Russian invasion,or, perhaps all three. Also, The once nomadic Tartar people descend from the Turks, many adopted Islam. Also, there are Muslim Tartars that came to live in eastern Europe during the middle to late medieval period. Note the other prophecy mentioned 'Ayran', so basically the prophecies attributed St. Nerses indicate all oppression will come from infidels east of Armenia, Iran included, so this also indicates Muslim oppression, this explains why the Armenias were glad to see the Crusaders arrive to battle with the Muslim Saracens, but it was not the time for the prophecies to be fulfilled.)
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(Published Oct. 18, 2020, update, Oct. 21, 2020)
