Christians in the first centuries of the church’s existence seeking inspiration could find it in the lives of early saints who carried the message of their new faith well beyond Jerusalem and often suffered greatly to do so. One such account, authored by Agathangelos, who claims to have been present at the time of the events he records (although this seems unlikely), concerns the trials and tribulations of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, who proselytized the word of Jesus throughout Armenia during the fourth century. His tenacity resulted in the Armenian king, Drtad, despite his initial refusal to abandon his pagan beliefs, to convert to Christianity along with a great many of his subjects. Much of Agathangelos’s telling of Gregory’s experiences feature certain larger- than- life elements that would not be out of place in a Greek myth or the Old Testament. He endures prolonged torture at the hands of Drtad, who is subjected to a possession that led him to exhibit beast- like behavior before his conversion. Such fanciful exaggerations may increase Gregory’s stature but should not overshadow his genuine influence in Armenia in making Christianity the official religion and becoming patriarchal bishop. His establishment of monasteries and schools of religious instruction served to promote a distinctly Armenian identity that drew heavily from its adoption of Christianity.