The man who initiated the conversion of Armenia was St. Gregory, called the "Enlightener" or "Illuminator" of Armenia. He was the founder and patron saint of the Armenian Apostolic Church, was born about 257. 
He belonged to the royal line of the Arsacid Dynasty, being the son of a Parthian named Anak, who assassinated Chosrov I King of Armenia, and thus brought ruin on himself and his family. His mother's name was Okohe, and the Armenian biographers tell how the first Christian influence he received was at the time of his conception, which took place near the monument raised to the memory of the holy apostle Thaddeus.
Educated in Caesarea in Cappadocia by a Christian nobleman Euthalius, Gregory sought, when he came to man's estate, to introduce the Christian doctrine into his native land. At that time Tiridates III, a son of king Chosroes, sat on the throne. Influenced partly by the fact that Gregory was the son of his father's enemy, he subjected him to much cruel usage, and imprisoned him for fourteen years in a pit on the Ararat Plain under the present day church of Khor Virap located near by historical city Artashat in Armenia.
It would be useless to recount the various forms of torture which the orthodox accounts represent the saint to have endured without permanent hurt; almost any one of his twelve trials would have been certain death to an ordinary mortal. But vengeance and madness fell upon the king, and at length Gregory was called forth from his pit to restore his royal persecutor to reason, by virtue of Gregory's saintly intercession.