Page:The History of Armenia - Avdall - Volume 1.djvu/152

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��the seventy, to Abgar at Edessa. Thaddevstin his arrival instructed the king in the faith, -and baptized him with all the people of Edessa. He likewise built a large church, over which he appointed a silk mercer, who had recently presented to the king a superb diadem made by bis own hands, as bishop, giving him the name of Addey, which the Syrians call Aghey. Short- ly after Thaddeus left Edessa and went into inner Armenia, to visit Sanatruk, who was residing in the province of Shavarshan, or Artaz. By means of the instructions of Thaddeus Sanatruk became a christian, smd was baptrzed, together with his daugMer Sandukht, and a great number of the t^hiefs and common people about Artaz. The holy disciple of our Lord also consecrated a bishop here, named Zachariah, and thence proceeded to the country of the Aluans. Fired with zeal for the faith hehad just a.d 31. embraced, Abgar wrote to Tiberius in favour of Christ, and many letters passed between the two monarchs on the subject of his divine mission. He also wrote to Artaces king of Persia, and to his son Nerseh, the young king of Assyria, exhorting them to become believers in Christ. Before he received replies to these, he a.d. 33. finished his career of life, dying in the 38th year of his reign, and the third of his conversion to Christianity,

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