According to the tenth-century author Movses Kaghankatvatsi, Gregory the Illuminator left Armenia to spread Christianity in Caucasian Albania, where on his orders there was built a church later to become the Amaras Monastery.

[4] According to Faustus of Byzantium, Grigoris sometime later departed for the Kingdom of Maskuts (located along the northeastern shore of the present day Republic of Azerbaijan and south Dagestani shore of the Caspian Sea) to preach Christianity, its ruler Sanesan (according to Moses of Chorene, his name was Sanatruk and he was a relative of Tiridates III).

Grigoris was trampled to death by mounted Maskut soldiers in the Vatnean Fields, traditionally considered near the present-day village of Nughdi 37 kilometres south of Derbent.

According to Movses Kaghankatvatsi, in 489, Vachagan III the Pious, King of Caucasian Albania, recovered Grigoris' relics and buried them in a tomb within the Amaras Monastery.

Grigoris' place of death in Nughdi was marked by the construction of a chapel at an unknown date, later rebuilt into a church, and venerated by local Christians and Muslims alike.