Saint Hripsime

Overview

Saint Hripsime is presented in the supplied sources under the names Rhipsime and Repsima, as a virgin martyr who fled Rome for Armenia with a community of women. Her story appears within the account of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, while a separate saints’ list records her feast on 29 Tut and specifies that she travelled with seventy-eight companions, including her sisters.¹²

The calendar commemorates the group collectively as “Repsima and her sisters, all virgins.” Her remembrance is therefore not confined to an individual martyr: the women who shared her flight and death are also included in the commemorative notice.³

History and origins

Flight from Rome

The account in the article on Gregory the Illuminator describes a community of nuns living in Rome. They fled because of Diocletian’s designs upon one of their members, Rhipsime, and sought refuge in the capital of Armenia. The narrative thus gives a specific reason for their departure: escape from the emperor’s pursuit of her, rather than an independently described missionary journey.²

The saints’ list supplies an additional detail absent from this narrative: Repsima had seventy-eight companions, among whom were her sisters. It likewise identifies Rome as their point of departure and Armenia as their destination, but compresses the account into a short notice of flight and martyrdom.¹

Tiridates and the martyrdom

Refuge in Armenia did not end the community’s danger. According to the narrative, King Tiridates harassed the women and attempted to seduce Rhipsime before returning her to Diocletian. She escaped from him, but the king’s men subsequently captured her and put her and her companions to death.²

The two main accounts differ in emphasis rather than supplying two fully separate narratives. The saints’ list says that the women were all slain “under Diocletian,” whereas the Gregory article identifies Tiridates’ men as those who carried out the killings. The latter account also connects the rulers directly through Tiridates’ intention to return Rhipsime to the emperor.¹²

Theology and meaning

Virginity and collective martyrdom

The sources consistently join virginity with martyrdom in their presentation of Hripsime and her community. The saints’ list calls Repsima a virgin, the calendar identifies her and her sisters as virgins, and the narrative describes the women as a community of nuns.¹²³

Within the narrative, the threat to Rhipsime is explicitly connected with the desires of powerful rulers, and her response is flight and escape. Read alongside the calendar’s designation of the women as virgin martyrs, these details place her resistance to those advances at the centre of the account preserved here.²³

The collective character of the remembrance is equally important. Although Rhipsime is the woman singled out by Diocletian and Tiridates, the story concludes with the death of her companions as well, and the calendar preserves their association with her rather than commemorating her alone.²³

Liturgical commemoration

The saints’ list gives Hripsime’s feast day, under the name Repsima, as 29 Tut. The corresponding calendar entry reads: “Martyrdom of Repsima and her sisters, all virgins, by Diocletian.”¹³

In the printed calendar, this entry is paired with 26 September. That pairing belongs to the calendar as supplied; its clearest explicit designation of the Coptic feast is the 29 Tut date given in the saints’ list.¹³

The wording of the calendar makes the martyrdom of the whole group the subject of the observance. It preserves both their shared identity as virgins and their association with Diocletian, while the longer narrative supplies the Armenian setting and the role of Tiridates.²³

Texts and terminology

Rhipsime and Repsima

The Gregory article uses the spelling Rhipsime; the saints’ list and calendar use Repsima. Their shared narrative elements—departure from Rome, refuge in Armenia, female companions, and death associated with Diocletian—connect these notices within the supplied material.¹²³

The descriptions of the companions also vary with the type of source. The narrative calls them a “community of nuns” and later “companions”; the saints’ list specifies companions “including her sisters”; and the calendar commemorates “her sisters, all virgins.” These formulations preserve different levels of detail, so the calendar’s shorter expression need not be treated as a complete description of the group’s membership.¹²³

Figures connected with Saint Hripsime

Saint Gregory the Illuminator

Hripsime’s story is embedded in what the encyclopedia calls the “legendary life story” of Gregory the Illuminator. Gregory is identified there as bishop and patriarch of Armenia, approximately dated to 240–332, and known as the “Apostle of Armenia.” The article also records his veneration in the diptychs of the Coptic Church and gives his feast days as 15 Kiyahk and 19 Tut.²⁴

The surrounding narrative describes another confrontation with Tiridates: Gregory refused the king’s order to offer incense to idols, endured the “twelve tortures of Saint Gregory,” and was thrown into a pit. An old Christian woman named Anna secretly sustained him with food for a number of years. Hripsime’s episode is thus situated within a broader account of resistance to the same king, although Gregory’s refusal of idol worship and Rhipsime’s escape from sexual pursuit are described as distinct events.²⁵

Diocletian and Tiridates

The Gregory article states that Tiridates succeeded his father, Chosroes, with Diocletian’s assistance. That political connection forms part of the setting for the later episode in which Tiridates intends to return Rhipsime to the emperor, but first attempts to seduce her himself.²⁶

Variations and limits of the accounts

The fullest supplied narrative explicitly places the episode within Gregory’s legendary life, while the saints’ list and calendar offer brief commemorative notices. These sources therefore serve different purposes: one relates the circumstances of flight and death, another supplies the number of companions and feast day, and the calendar records the group’s liturgical remembrance.¹²³

There is also a difference in the wording of responsibility for the martyrdom. The calendar says “by Diocletian,” the saints’ list says “under Diocletian,” and the narrative names Tiridates’ men as the immediate perpetrators. Preserving those distinctions gives a more accurate account of the supplied evidence than replacing all three formulations with a single unqualified attribution.¹²³