Armenia, after contact with centers of early Christianity at Antioch and Edessa, accepts Christianity as its state religion in 306 (the traditional date—the actual date may have been as late as 314), following miracles said to have been performed by Saint Gregory the Illuminator, son of a Parthian nobleman.

Thus Armenians claim that Tiridates III (238- 314) was the first ruler to officially Christianize his people, his conversion predating the conventional date (312) of Constantine the Great's legalization of Christianity on behalf of the Roman Empire.