Topic: Catholicos Nerse(s) III

[Ansgar]

I was reading about the Lives of the Saints. Today, we commemorate the Venerable Fathers and Mothers of the Klarjeti Wilderness. As I was reading, I stumbled on something interesting.

George Merchule also provided the Church with the Life of Holy Catholicos Nerse III, an Armenian by descent. Nerse confessed the Orthodox Faith and labored in Tao-Klarjeti with the Georgian fathers. (At that time many Orthodox Armenians fled to Tao-Klarjeti after being exiled from their homeland.) In the first half of the 7th century St. Nerse laid the foundations of Ishkhani Church and labored there in holiness... Only a few of the God-fearing laborers, among them Holy Catholicos Nerse II, were Armenian by descent, but they had converted to Orthodoxy and preached the true Faith in the wilderness with the Georgian fathers.

http://oca.org/saints/lives/2013/10/05/205467-venerable-fathers-and-mothers-of-the-klarjeti-wilderness

I tried to find some more information, but I found nothing that indicated that Catholicos Nerse III should have converted to Chalcedonian Orthodoxy. Does anyone know something about this? I suspect that it may be some kind of mix-up or historical inaccuracy, but I'm not sure.

[Deacon Lance]

Nerses III
 
Of Ischkan; surnamed Schinogh, "the church builder". Erected patriarch in 641; died 661. He lived in days of political turmoil. The Armenians had to choose between the Greeks and the Persians, and their new conquerors, the Arabs. Nerses remained friendly to the Greeks, whilst the military chiefs sided with the Arabs. Constans II (642-48) hastened into Armenia to punish the rebels and subject them to the Greek Church. Nerses and a number of bishops went forth to meet him and declared they accepted the Council of Chalcedon . Disagreement with the satrap Tehodorus compelled Nerses to withdraw from the administration of the patriarchate from 652 to 658.

http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=8395