Urnayr
Udi · mortal · Udi traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Urnayr is remembered as the first Christian king of Caucasian Albania. Of the Arsacid house, he is said in Albanian tradition to have travelled to Armenia after its conversion and to have been baptized by Gregory the Illuminator, thereafter declaring Christianity the religion of his realm and founding its earliest church structures, including bishoprics served from Amaras. Sources differ on the chronology: some historians place his baptism early in the fourth century, while others note that Urnayr was still a pagan warrior allied to Sasanian Persia at the battle against Rome in 371, and question the tradition's harmonization with the lifetime of Gregory. He nonetheless stands in Udi memory as the royal founder of the Christian kingdom.
Domains
- kingship
- conversion
Powers
- is baptized as first Christian king of Albania
- makes Christianity the kingdom's religion
Sources
- Urnayr, Arsacid king of Albania, was baptized in the wake of Armenia's conversion and established Christianity as the kingdom's religion; scholars debate the precise date and its ascription to Gregory the Illuminator.: Movses Dasxurantsi, The History of the Caucasian Albanians, Book I.9, trans. C.J.F. Dowsett (Oxford University Press, 1961) (primary); W. Schulze, Z. Alexidze and J. Gippert, discussion of the chronology of Albania's Christianization in the Caucasian Albanian palimpsest studies (secondary)