On October 13, Orthodox Christians remember the holy martyr Grigory, the enlightener of Armenia, and the Venerable Grigory, the founder of the Pelshma Monastery.
Grigory was born in 257 AD and came from the Parthian royal family of the Arsacids. His father, wishing to obtain the Armenian throne, killed King Kursor, his relative, for which his entire lineage was subjected to destruction.
The infant Grigory was saved and taken to Caesarea Cappadocia. He was raised in the Christian faith, married, had two sons, but became a widower. Wishing to atone for the sin of his father, who had killed the father of Tigran, he entered into service with him.
After becoming the Armenian king, Tigran commanded Grigory to renounce his faith, and for his refusal, subjected him to numerous tortures and threw him into a pit, where he spent 14 years. During this time, King Tigran tortured and killed 37 nuns. According to tradition, for this, the king and his close associates were punished with madness. Grigory, released from captivity, ordered the burial of the nuns, and a church was built at the burial site, to which the possessed king was brought.
After repenting, the king was healed and accepted baptism, proclaiming Christianity as the state religion in Armenia. This happened in 301 AD. Thus, Armenia became the first country to adopt Christianity on a state level. In 326 AD, Saint Grigory died in seclusion, passing the episcopal throne to his son.
The Venerable Grigory was born in Galich in 1315 in a family of boyars. Leaving his estate, he took monastic vows at the Nativity of the Mother of God Monastery, where he later became the abbot. He later left the monastery and settled in the Abraham Monastery, and then became the archimandrite of the Spassky Monastery. After two years of managing the Spassky Monastery, he left it and became a disciple of Saint Dionysius of Glushitsa, an icon painter and founder of several monasteries on the Glushitsa River.
When Grigory turned 104 years old, he settled in a cell on the banks of the Pelshma River. Later, other ascetics joined him, and Grigory received a blessing from the bishop of Rostov to build a monastery. The saint died at the age of 127.
Our ancestors believed that before the feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos (October 14), forest spirits roamed the woods, causing disorder, and then on the day of Erophei (October 17), they would sink underground until spring. On the eve of the Protection, the forest spirits howl all day, trying to outcry the wind.
On Grigory's Day, people tried to protect themselves and their loved ones from illnesses and the evil eye — they burned old straw from mattresses in the barn to later stuff them with new straw.
Weather Signs
If snow has fallen — winter will not come soon. If cranes have flown away — it will be an early and cold winter. If frost appears on the windows in the morning — guests will come. If dry snow has fallen — summer will be fruitful. A pale and murky moon in the fog — to bad weather.
