The S. Ejmiatsin is the first official church in the Christian world. The Monastery of Surp (Holy) Ejmiatsin (“The Descent of the Only-Begotten”) is surrounded by the city of Vagharshapat, which for a short time was the capital of Armenia. The Mother Temple was begun in the 301-303 AD, built on the ruins of a heathen cult site.  Ejmiatsin has been seat of the Katholikos in the IV and V centuries and again since 1441, as the seat of the miraculous relics of the Armenian Church - the Lance, the hand of S. Gregory the Illuminator, the hand of the Apostle Thaddeus, a finger of S. Jude, a drop of S. Hripsime's blood, etc. The paintings inside the Cathedral are by the famous Armenian painter Naghash Hovnathan (XVII century).