[12] According to the Buzandaran Patmutʻiwnkʻ, Nerses never again appeared at Arshak's court after the king ordered the murder of his own nephew, Gnel, in defiance of the catholicos's exhortations.

Nerses undertook the reconstruction of Armenian churches and monasteries that had been destroyed during the Persian occupation of Armenia and strove toward the elimination of Zoroastrian influence in the country.

[6] The classical Armenian historians write that Pap proved a dissolute and unworthy ruler and Nerses forbade him entrance to the church.

Other historians believe that Nerses tried to bring the young king under his control using his considerable influence and enlisting the help of some Armenian princes, prompting Pap to dissolve the Patriarch's benevolent institutions and confiscate holdings belonging to the Church.

[15] In medieval Armenia, a legend about a prophetic vision supposedly seen by Nerses in his dying moments gained widespread popularity and underwent several transformations over the centuries.

[16] The legend first appears in a 10th-century vita of Nerses attributed to Mesrop Erets ('the Priest'), although the main version that has reached us was redacted sometime between 1099 and 1131, that is, soon after the first Crusader conquest of Jerusalem.

[17] According to this version of the legend, Nerses predicted the fall of the Arsacid and Gregorid houses, the conquest of Jerusalem by the Persians, the capture of the True Cross, and its recapture by the Byzantines; the Armenian princes will be subjugated by the Byzantines, but the latter will soon be defeated by the "nation of the archers" (later associated with the Seljuks), leading to the total ruination of Armenia and its church; these calamities will be followed by the coming of the "Franks" or "Romans" (the Crusaders), who will defeat the infidels and subject them to Roman authority, leading to the creation of a heavenly kingdom on Earth where peace, prosperity and justice will reign until the coming of the Antichrist.