ohrshnuhvahdz geenehr yohteh ahzneev hahdgoutiounehr uhstatzadz yehn ahstoudzmeheh

There are seven superlative qualities that are considered feminine; fame, fortune, fine speech, memory, intelligence, steadfastness and patience. If a woman possesses some or all of them, she is considered divinely blessed. These qualities can also be possessed by men who are saintly.

A genuininely righteous woman is a paradigm of society. In Armenian history, Hripseme was such a woman and Sourp Bahrsegh (Saint Blaise) was such a man. Sourp Bahrsegh’s history is very interesting. The legend is given by E.-H. Vollet, in the Grande Encyclopédie as follows:
“Blaise, who had studied philosophy in his youth, was a doctor in Sebastia in Armenia, the city of his birth, who exercised his art with miraculous ability, good-will, and piety. When the bishop of the city died, he was chosen to succeed him, with the acclamation of all the people. His holiness was manifest through many miracles: from all around, people came to him to find cures for their spirit and their body; even wild animals came in herds to receive his blessing. In 316, Agricola, the governor of Cappadocia and of Lesser Armenia, having arrived in Sebastia at the order of the emperor Licinius to kill the Christians, arrested the bishop. As he was being led to prison, a mother set her only son, choking to death of a fish-bone, at his feet, and the child was cured straight away. Regardless, the governor, unable to make Blaise renounce his faith, beat him with a stick, ripped his flesh with iron combs, and beheaded him.”

Saint Hripseme, a saintly nun from Rome, was also brutally murdered in Armenia by the Armenian king Drtad because she refused to renounce her Christian faith and chastity as a nun.

The opulence of pure love of God and the beautitude which is a result of such purity of spirit are important aspects of fortune. Fine speech is characterized as speaking words that are truthful, pleasing, beneficial, and not agitating to others and when possible based on holy scriptural authority.

The ability to remember what one has studied is a sign of good memory. Good intelligence is manifest by the skillful application of acquired knowledge to solve practical problems encountered in everyday life.

Steadfastness in the most trying situations where most persons succomb to
loss of courage or determination to complete an undertaking is a virtue of good character.

When one is highly qualified in knowledge and realization, yet always remains humble and gentle along with the ability to be equipoised in
happiness and distressed, he or she is graced with patience.

If a person possesses some or all of these qualities, he or she is considered graced by the mercy of God.