Origins of the Trisagion song in the written sources of the Armenian Church

Abstract

One of the issues vigorously discussed by the supporters and opponents of the Council of Chalcedon was that of the Trisagion song text, namely the possibility of using it in the phrase “crucified for us”. During these discussions the question about the circumstances and the time of its origin was also raised. The Armenian literature provides various examples showing who originally used the Trisagion song and when it happened. This article presents a number of extracts from the writings by Catholicos Ovan of Odzoun, vardapet Abraham, Mkhitar Gosh, Grigor of Tatev, Stepanos of Syunik, Armenian theological tradition which are compared with the facts of the Byzantine tradition. Some of the Armenian sources which date the origin of the hymn to the times of Christ obviously have legendary character. Other writings could be correlated with the Byzantine (and other) sources which date the origin of the Trisagion song to the Council of Ephesus (431). None of the Armenian sources, while mentioning the Trisagion song, give any information about the earthquake at the time of St. Proclus of Constantinople when, according to the Orthodox writers, this hymn appeared (or was corrected). However, all the Armenian sources mention the full version of the Trisagion song as the original one, which provides the Armenian theologians with the extra argument for the possibility and necessity of addressing Christ in this hymn.

Keywords

• armenian apostolic church
• council of chalcedon
• trisagion
• theopaschism
• proclus of constantinople
• grigor of tatev
• stepanos of syunik
• armenian theological tradition
• армянская апостольская церковь
• халкидонский собор
• трисвятая песнь
• армянская богословская традиция
• прокл константинопольский
• григор татеваци
• степанос сюнеци
• теопасхизм