Editing Gregory the Illuminator (section)

== Retirement and death ==
Some time after converting Armenia to Christianity, Gregory appointed his younger son Aristaces as his successor and went to live an ascetic life in the "cave of Manē" in the district of [[Daranali]] in [[Upper Armenia]].{{Sfn|Garsoïan|1989|p=375}}{{Efn|Agathangelos writes that King Tiridates sent for Aristaces and Vrtanes and had them brought to Armenia from Caesarea after Gregory went to live in seclusion.{{sfn|Thomson|1976|pp=393–397}}}} The Patriarchate of Armenia would be held as a hereditary office, with some interruptions, by the house of Gregory, called the [[Gregorids]], until the death of Patriarch [[Isaac of Armenia|Isaac]] in the fifth century.{{Sfn|Garsoïan|1997|p=83}}{{Sfn|Terian|2005|p=76}} According to Movses Khorenatsi, Gregory sometimes came out from his hermitage and traveled around the country until Aristaces returned from the [[First Council of Nicaea|Council of Nicaea]] (325), after which Gregory never appeared to anyone again.{{Sfn|Thomson|1978|pp=248–249}} He died in seclusion in the cave of Manē and was buried nearby by shepherds who did not know who he was.{{Sfn|Thomson|1978|pp=249–250}} All of the sources indicate that Gregory's death occurred not long after the Council of Nicaea; [[Cyril Toumanoff]] gives 328 as the year of Gregory's death.{{Sfn|Toumanoff|1969|p=268}}