Holy Saturday is the day of Christ's rest in the tomb — the only day in the Christian year when the Church contemplates the reality that God the Son lay dead and buried. It is the third day of the Paschal Triduum, spanning from the evening of Good Friday to the lighting of the Paschal Candle at the Easter Vigil. Like Good Friday, no Eucharist is celebrated on Holy Saturday itself; the altar remains bare. The theological significance of this day was developed early. The Apostles' Creed's affirmation that Christ 'descended to the dead' (descendit ad inferos) finds its liturgical home here. The tradition of Christ's descent — variously called the Harrowing of Hell, the Descensus, or the Anastasis — is rooted in 1 Peter 3:18-20 and 4:6, amplified by early patristic reflection. An ancient homily attributed to the second century (sometimes called the 'Ancient Homily on Holy Saturday,' preserved in the Liturgy of the Hours) dramatically narrates Christ descending to the realm of death to liberate Adam and Eve: 'Arise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven.' The BCP 2019 provides two collects for this day: one focusing on the entombment and the hope of the third day, the other on the descent to the dead.

Holy Saturday is characterized by silence, waiting, and theological paradox. The Church holds a kind of cosmic Sabbath — God resting from the work of redemption as God once rested from the work of creation. The Byzantine tradition makes the most of this paradox, with icons of the Anastasis (Resurrection) that depict Christ standing on the shattered gates of Hades, pulling Adam and Eve from their tombs, even as his own body lies in the grave above. This icon is, notably, the Eastern Church's primary Resurrection image — not the empty tomb, but the harrowing of the dead. In the West, the day is marked by quiet preparation. The Easter Vigil, which begins after nightfall, is technically the first liturgy of Easter Day and belongs to the Resurrection rather than to Holy Saturday. The BCP 2019 makes this distinction explicit: the Vigil is listed under Easter rather than Holy Saturday. The hours before the Vigil are a genuine liturgical void — the Church waits, as the disciples waited, not yet knowing what the morning will bring. The ancient baptismal connection is strong: Holy Saturday was historically the final day of preparation for catechumens who would be baptized at the Vigil, their passage through water mirroring Christ's passage through death.

According to the Armenian historian Agathangelos, Gregory was born the son of Anak, a Parthian nobleman who assassinated the Armenian king Khosrov II. The infant Gregory was smuggled out of Armenia and raised as a Christian in Caesarea in Cappadocia, where he was baptized and educated.

As an adult, Gregory returned to Armenia and entered the service of King Tiridates III, seeking to atone for his father's crime. When Gregory refused to offer sacrifice to the goddess Anahit, Tiridates subjected him to prolonged torture and eventually threw him into a pit — Khor Virap ('deep prison'), near Mount Ararat — where he languished for thirteen years, sustained by a widow's secret supply of bread.

Meanwhile, Tiridates was afflicted with a mysterious illness (tradition describes him being transformed into a wild boar) that no physician could cure. His sister dreamed that only Gregory could heal the king. Gregory was brought from the pit, healed Tiridates (through prayer, not medicine), and the king was converted. Armenia officially adopted Christianity around 301 — a century before most of the Christian world.

Gregory was consecrated bishop by Leontius of Caesarea and systematically destroyed pagan temples and built churches across Armenia. He established his see at Etchmiadzin, where the cathedral he founded remains the spiritual center of the Armenian Church. After organizing the church, he withdrew to a hermitage and died around 331.

Gregory's descendants served as Catholicos (chief bishop) of Armenia for generations, establishing a hereditary ecclesiastical dynasty.

Traditionally, Gregory's thirteen years in Khor Virap were sustained by divine providence — a pious widow secretly brought him daily bread without anyone discovering her. His emergence from the pit, healthy and luminous, was taken as a miraculous sign. According to Agathangelos, Gregory had a vision in which Christ descended from heaven and struck the ground at Etchmiadzin with a golden hammer, marking the site of the mother cathedral.