Birth of Hovhannes Shiraz (April 27, 1915)

April 27, 2013 by admin


Prepared by

the Armenian National Education Committee (ANEC)


       Poet Hovhannes Shiraz, one of the most popular names in Armenia and the Diaspora during Soviet times, was born in Alexandropol (later Leninakan, now Gumri), in 1915. His birth name was Onnig Garabedian. At the age of five, he lost his father, who was killed in the Turkish invasion of Armenia that followed the Armenian-Turkish war of 1920. He grew in poverty. He went to work at the textile factory of Leninakan in 1932. He published his first poems in the factory newspapers. Apparently, he first signed them with the pseudonym Hovhannes Shirag (Gumri is located in the plain of Shirag).HovhannesShiraz

A behind the scenes shot of the making of the film, Shiraz, in Gyumri, in 1983. Hovhannes Shiraz is second from left, sitting in the carriage.

        One year later, he was hired as teacher in the village of Haji Nazar (now Kamo), in the district of Akhurian. He published his first book of poetry, “Spring Initiation,” in 1935, with the pseudonym Hovhannes Shiraz. According to his testimony, writer Atrpet (1860-1937) gave him the pseudonym of Shiraz (a city in Iran, well known for its flowers), saying: “The poems of this young man have the perfume of the fresh and dew-covered roses of Shiraz.” In the same year, Shiraz became a member of the Writers Union of Armenia.

        He attended the Faculty of Philology of the Yerevan State University between 1941 and 1947, where he studied Armenian language and literature. Afterwards, he lived from his pen. He also followed the courses of the Institute of Literature Maxim Gorky of Moscow from 1952-1954.

        Shiraz’s most important collection of poetry was “Lyre of Armenia” (three volumes, 1958, 1965, and 1974). He won the State Prize of Soviet Armenia in 1975 and the Hovhannes Tumanian prize in 1982.

       Although the press run of his books was over half a million copies and his poems were translated into 58 languages, Shiraz ran into many problems with censorship. His patriotic poetry, particularly his evocation of the historical injustice suffered by Armenians and the lost territories of Western Armenia and, at the time, Gharapagh, was forbidden several times. In 1974, when the well-known literary critic Suren Aghababian told Shiraz about receiving the Lenin Medal, the response was: “And what do they want from me in exchange? To buy my silence?”

        He was never allowed to travel outside the Soviet Union, but many of his unpublished poems were smuggled outside the country and published in the Diaspora press. For instance, the first draft of his poem “The Armenian Dante,” about the Armenian Genocide, was written in 1941. Only a few excerpts were published in Armenia during his lifetime and a few chapters in Beirut and Tehran. The entire poem was posthumously published in 1990. His poem “Ani,” about the medieval capital of Armenia, written in 1950, was also published in excerpts in the Diaspora, and the final edition only appeared in 2012.

        Shiraz first married poet Silva [Gaboudigian] Kaputikian (1919-2006). They had a son, the future sculptor Ara Shiraz. Shiraz and his second wife, Shushan, had seven children, including poet Sipan Shiraz (1967-1997).

        Shiraz, who had become a living legend, passed away in Yerevan on March 14, 1984. He was buried in the pantheon of Gomidas Park, where many famous Armenians are buried.

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Birth of Taniel Varoujan (April 20, 1884)

April 20, 2013 by admin

In the first decade and half of the twentieth century, poet Taniel Varoujan rose to become the most remarkable name of Armenian literature. He would have become an internationally known name had not his exile and assassination trounced his career during the Armenian Genocide.

            Taniel Chibukkiarian was born in the village of Perknik, in the vilayet of Sepastia. After attending the local school, in 1896 he went to Constantinople, where he attended one of the schools of the Mekhitarist Congregation of Venice. He then continued his education at the Moorat-Raphaelian school of Venice from 1902-1905. In 1905 he entered the University of Ghent, in Belgium, where he followed courses in literature, sociology, and economics. He adopted the surname Varoujan (from an Armenian word that means "male dove") when he started to publish his poems. In 1906 he published his first volume of poetry, Shivers, followed the next year by a booklet that contained a long poem, The Massacre. He graduated in 1909 and returned to the Ottoman Empire. The same year he published a new volume, Heart of the Race, which TanielVaroujanestablished him as a poet.

Returning to Sepastia, he became a teacher between 1909 and 1912. In 1910 he married his student, Araksi Tashjian, vanquishing the opposition of her father. In 1912 they moved to Constantinople, where he became the principal of the St. Gregory the Illuminator School until his deportation in April 1915.

               He published a new and even more powerful collection of poetry, Pagan Songs, in 1912. In late 1913 he joined forces with four young writers, Kostan Zarian (1885-1969), Hagop Oshagan (1883-1948), Kegham Parseghian (1883-1915), and Aharon Dadourian (1888-1965), to create the group "Mehyan." They issued a manifesto that called for the renovation of Armenian literature and language, and founded a short-lived but important monthly journal, Mehyan, that published seven issues (January-July 1914). Due to aesthetic divergences, Varoujan left the group after the third issue (March 1914).

                The poet had three children: Veronica, Armen, and Haig. His wife was pregnant with their third child, when Varoujan was included in the Turkish black list and arrested on the night of April 23-24, 1915, by the police with hundreds of Armenian intellectuals and leaders. He was deported to Changr (Chankiri) together with many of his colleagues, where they lived in a sort of internal exile for the next two months. On August 26, 1915, along with his friend, the poet and physician Rupen Sevag (Chilingirian, 1885-1915), and three other Armenians, they were taken to Kalayjek. On the road, following a previous plan, a group of Turkish chetes (irregular soldiers) attacked the carriage that transported them. They were forced to take their clothes out, and then savagely assassinated. The same day, Varoujan’s son, Haig, was born in Constantinople.

            The poet’s papers had been confiscated at the time of his arrest. In 1921 his wife Araksi was able to recover, after paying a hefty bribe, his unfinished last book, The Song of the Bread, which was published the same year in Constantinople.

               After his death, Varoujan’s works were published in no less than thirty editions over the past nine decades. Collections of his poetry have been also published in French and Italian. His daughter Veronica Safrasian (1910-2009) lived for many years in New York, while his younger son Haig (1915-2002) passed away in Fresno.

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GREEN SUNDAY

April 11, 2013 by admin

Easter Sunday is followed by a period of fifty days (Hisnag) during which there are no fasting days and no saints’ days. This period from the Resurrection to Pentecost (Hokekaloost) is dedicated to the glorification of the Resurrections. Each of the seven Sundays of Hisnag has a special name. Last Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter, was New Sunday.

This Sunday, April 14, is Green Sunday (Ganach Giragi), also called Sunday of the World Church (Ashkharhamadoor). Green Sunday most probably originates from an ancient folk holiday celebrating spring. Our forefathers, seeing mother earth bloom after long winter months, glorified the Creator with an act of thanksgiving and celebrated by decorating the church and themselves with greenery. The reawakening of nature is symbolic of the Resurrection. Green is the color of life, freshness, and promise. After a barren winter we are filled with hope, life, and love

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EASTER MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS KAREKIN II

March 31, 2013 by admin

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THE MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS KAREKIN II
SUPREME PATRIARCH AND CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS
THE FEAST OF THE GLORIOUS RESURRECTION
OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, March 31, 2013

In the Name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen

"That God gave us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son."
1 John 5:11

Dear and pious faithful,

With the warmth of the dawning spring and the awakening of nature filled with new life, the hope and joy of the Feast of the Resurrection take flight in our souls today with the angelic tiding of "Christ is Risen", renewing and strengthening us in the confidence "that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son".

These words of the Apostle testify to the event that changed the course of the history of mankind, which occurred when the crucified and entombed Christ rose from the dead. From that moment on, death has no power over men, sin is absolved, and the reign of death is destroyed. It is the light of salvation and eternal life on the other side of the grave that brightly shines today in our souls – renewing us in our hope and faith.

The belief in the Resurrection of Christ always brings strength and power to always rise up and live that life that is in the Son of God. The foundation of that life is love – the love that sacrifices. That love with which the Son of God came to the world, fulfilled His mission of salvation, and instructed His disciples and followers saying, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another". John 13:34. Christ placed love at the foundation of human life, so that man would be perfect and that he would lack nothing. Love creates, builds and establishes and does not ruin; it illuminates, inspires hope, grants joy and bliss and does not succumb to indecision and despondency; it does not bring pain and grief. Love is the fountainhead of goodness and joy, the rock of peace and justice, the encouragement to support and help each other for the sake of a life of goodness and ongoing progress.

Today, alongside the bliss in our heart of the feast of Christ’s Resurrection, is also the regret that our Lord’s message of love for mankind and all of God’s creation does not manifest itself everywhere and always in human life. The seeds of Christ-commanded love that have been preached for two millennia often fall on the barren stones of souls that have strayed away from God, or do not produce results due to the negligence of man; or that which is planted by the Lord is plundered by evil, spreading dissension and leading men astray from their good paths. The present difficult global-political and economic developments, the growing self-centered mindset, and the disregard of spiritual and moral values, bring forth new disagreements and conflicts, problems and concerns in the life of societies, and human relationships. The path to rise above these realities that devastate the peaceful and harmonious life is illuminated by the good news today of Christ’s Resurrection, bringing with it the message of that life, which is in the Son of God. That life is real, attainable and within reach for us all. When human thoughts and works are born and guided by faith in God and love for one another, that is the life that is in Christ. When care and mutual support are the characteristic and natural state of society, that is the life that is in Christ. When thirty pieces of silver do not clear the way for Judas-like falsification and betrayal, and injustices are not realized through Pilate-like indifference, that is the life that is in Christ. When both in times of difficulty and plenty, the mouths of men resound with prayer and praise to God; when families raise pious children, that is the life that is in Christ, and for which mankind is called through God’s benevolent grace.

Dear and beloved faithful, today our state and national life continues to be troubled by serious challenges: the issue of Artsakh, the illegal blockade of our country, socio-economic concerns, emigration, and the influx of false values and customs. Worrisome also are the moods of despondency and disparagement, the lack of mutual trust, the lack of will to listen to each other; and the implacable imposition of one’s own truth. Let us expel from ourselves these kinds of behaviors. Our truth is the newly independentArmenia– the inextinguishable dream of centuries of our fathers and grandfathers; liberated Artsakh – the modern day heroism of our spirit and our proud victory. Our truth is our people who face difficulties and distress, the Armenian Armed Forces who defend our native borders under threats of war, our communities dispersed throughout the world, struggling daily for their national and spiritual identity, and today’s endangered and shrinking Syrian Armenian community – yearning for aid and support. These are the realities before us, dear faithful. We have only one path to strengthen our homeland, to build our flourishing life, for the realization of our visions and with aspirations for national rebirth and reawakening: that life that is in the Son of God. Let us renew our oath with God with the tiding of the Savior’s resurrection, let us fortify ourselves with faith and the hope of the risen life, to overcome our present difficulties and troubles. Let us reject fear, indifference, despondency and all doubt that can weaken our people and our unity, and by helping one another, let us implement all of our nation-building programs and cherished goals. Let us live with the love witnessed and testified by our Lord, so that the success and accomplishment of each one of us serve the general welfare and progress, turn into victory, glory and honor for our country and the entire nation, and may we remain God’s own and faithful people, worthy of the Lord’s heavenly graces and gifts.

With the glad tiding of our Lord’s glorious Resurrection, we extend our brotherly love in Christ and best wishes to the incumbents of the hierarchal Sees of our Apostolic Holy Church: His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia; His Beatitude Archbishop Nourhan Manougian, Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem; His Beatitude Archbishop Mesrob Mutafian, Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople; and the graceful heads of our Sister Churches.

Appealing for the graces of the Risen Lord, we greet President Serzh Sargsian of the Republic of Armenia; President Bako Sahakian of the Republic of Artsakh; and all Armenian state officials, wishing many accomplishments and lasting achievements done in the name of the bright future for our land and people. With the good news of the glorious Holy Resurrection of Christ, we extend our blessings to the leaders and representatives of diplomatic missions accredited inArmenia, wishing them all good things and success to their work.

We extend our pontifical love and blessings to the oath-bound clergy and faithful sons and daughters of ourHolyChurchdispersed throughout the world.

We pray that the graces of our Risen Lord flow into the souls of men, so that peace, love for one another and justice be established and flourish everywhere throughout the world. May the Lord keep our homeland and our people in peace, and may He bless all efforts in the name of the goodness of our life and the vibrancy of our faith, so that the Armenian Nation, today and always says with joy:

Christ is Risen from the dead!
Blessed is the Resurrection of Christ.

 

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Death of Kristapor Kara-Murza (March 27, 1902)

March 28, 2013 by admin

Prepared by

the Armenian National Education Committee (ANEC)

 

This year is the 160th anniversary of the birth of composer Kristapor Kara-Murza, introducer of choral music in Armenian culture. He was born on March 2, 1853 (February 18, according to the old Julian calendar) in the town of Gharasu-Bazar, currently Bielogorsk, in the Crimea (Ukraine). He started to play piano and flute at age 8 and also took private lessonsKaraKurza from music teachers in the town. He developed his abilities to read and write music. He was just a teenager when he started to organize and offer concerts.

He moved to Tiflis, the capital of the viceroyalty of the Caucasus, in 1882, and then to Baku from 1885-1892. He was the editor of musical criticism for the daily Mshak, edited by Grigor Artzruni. Kara-Murza offered the first concert of choral music in Armenian history, with a program of patriotic songs, at the theater founded by Artzruni in Tiflis. This was a novelty, as Armenian music was fundamentally written on a one-voice basis, as opposed to European four voices (polyphony). During the next seventeen years, until his premature death at the age of 49, the composer organized some 90 choral groups in fifty cities of Armenia and outside the country, including Tiflis, Baku, Etchmiadzin, Nakhichevan-on-the-Don, Odessa, Batum, Moscow, Kars, Shushi, Constantinople, and others, and gave more than 250 concerts with the participation of 6,000 people.

        Kara-Murza’s most important achievement was the collection of Armenian religious and popular songs, and their musical arrangement and conversion into polyphonic music. In 1887 he premiered his arrangement of the Divine Liturgy in a concert in Baku. He taught music at the Kevorkian Seminary of Holy Etchmiadzin in 1892-1893, and later settled back in Tiflis, where he gave special courses to musical conductors.

        He also composed songs with lyrics by Armenian poets, as well as music a cappella, and also arranged operatic melodies. He presented in Baku fragments of Faust, the famous opera of French composer Charles Gounod (1818-1893), in Armenian translation. Kara-Murza arranged 300 choral and popular songs, among them such classics as “Dzidzernag,” “Zinch oo zinch,” “Kezi mernim,” “Khorodig,” “Lepho lele.”  He also composed and transcribed popular dances, and became the precursor to the modern song and dance ensembles.

        In recent years, Kara-Murza has been credited with the composition of the music of the song “Mer Hairenik,” with lyrics by Mikael Nalbandian (1829-1866), which he premiered in Tiflis, in 1885. His music was the basis for the arrangement by Parsegh Ganachian (1885-1967), one of Gomidas’ disciples, which is performed today as the Armenian national anthem.

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Birth of Nikol [Nigol] Aghbalian, (March 24, 1873)

March 28, 2013 by admin

Prepared by

the Armenian National Education Committee (ANEC)

 

       An accomplished intellectual, educator, and public figure, Nikol [Nigol] Aghbalian was a self-appointed missionary of Armenian values wherever he went and wherever he worked, from the Caucasus to Beirut.

       He was born in Tiflis in a working-NigoleAghpalianclass family. He graduated from the Lyceum Nersisian in Tiflis and the Kevorkian Seminary in Etchmiadzin, and he dedicated himself to teaching. At the same time, he started writing literary criticism for the monthly Murj, and the quality of his writing attracted the attention of the readership and the intelligentsia. Despite his precarious financial situation, he managed to follow university courses in Moscow, Paris, and Lausanne, although he was never able to graduate.

       Aghbalian became a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation at a young age and he used his intellectual qualities to service the political cause. Since 1905, he was among the leading members of the Vernadun, the circle of intellectuals that gathered in the attic of poet Hovhannes Tumanian’s house to discuss literary and cultural issues of the day.

       He was the principal of the Armenian school of Tehran between 1909 and 1912. He returned to Tiflis in 1913, where he became the editor of the A.R.F. newspaper Horizon and vice president of the Armenian Writers Society.After the beginning of World War I, Aghbalian was one of the founders of the Armenian National Council and played a crucial role in the organization of the Armenian volunteer movement that gave several battalions of Armenian soldiers to the Russian army fighting on the Caucasian front. When the retreat of the Russian forces brought thousands of survivors of the Armenian genocide from Western Armenia, he devoted himself to the daily work of sheltering, nourishing, and treating those refugees.

       After the establishment of the Republic of Armenia, Aghbalian was elected a member of the Parliament and in 1919-1920 he became Minister of Education and Art. He established the grounds of the University of Yerevan and sponsored various educational and cultural initiatives. It is a well-known fact that his sponsorship of the yet unknown poet, Yeghishe Charents, whom he gave a job at the ministry, permitted him to concentrate on his  literary creations.

       After the sovietization of Armenia, he was incarcerated by the Bolshevik regime on February 9, 1921, and he was able to save his life, as well as many others, thanks to the popular rebellion of February 18, which liberated the prisoners, who had been condemned to death. After the end of the rebellion, he left Armenia and went to Tabriz, in Iran. A short time later, he moved to Alexandria (Egypt), where he worked as a teacher until 1928. In that year, he was among the initiators and founders of the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Editorial Society (today Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society). Later he moved with his friend and associate, the writer and educator Levon Shant (1869-1951), to Lebanon, where they founded the Armenian College (Jemaran) of Hamazkayin in Beirut (later Nshan Palanjian College and today Melanchton and Haig Arslanian College).

       Until his death on August 15, 1947, Aghbalian followed an active schedule as a teacher and scholar. He taught the history of Armenian literature, Classical Armenian, and Armenian classical literature. He also organized a cycle of widely attended popular lectures to attract the interest of the Armenian community towards its literature and culture. He remained one of the intellectual referents of the Diaspora in its first decades.

       His extended activities as a public figure and an educator did not allow Aghbalian to complete many of his projects. However, he managed to publish several books on Armenian literature and politics, and a four-volume collection of his works was published in the late 1950s in Beirut.

       His family remained in Yerevan after his exile in 1921. His name was forbidden in Armenia until the final years of the Soviet regime. His name and his work were fully rehabilitated after the second independence. Some of his works, as well as monographs about him, have been published, and a school has been named after him.

 

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HOLY WEEK

March 23, 2013 by admin

We are now entering the most solemn period for Christians—Holy Week—leading us to our most sacred holiday, Easter and the Resurrection. The week before Easter marks a series of events in the life of Jesus that were ordained or prophesied. These events include the raising of Lazarus (described above) and the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, where he is greeted by large assembly of people carrying olive and palm branches.

       On Palm Sunday (Dzaghgazart) the altar curtain, which was closed at the beginning of Lent, is open. The palms are blessed and distributed to the faithful. Children dressed in their best clothes and carrying beautifully decorated candles, parade around the church in a procession. In the evening, or as now done immediately following the Divine Liturgy, the faithful gather at the door of the church or at the closed altar, for the Opening of the Doors (Trnpatsek) ceremony, symbolizing the opening of the gates to the Kingdom of God. This solemn penitential service in preparation of Holy Week is unique to the Armenian Church.

       Each day of Holy Week (also called Great Week, Avak Shabat) is a holy day. Monday commemorates the barren fig tree (Matthew 21:18-20). Tuesday commemorates the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:13). Wednesday commemorates the Anointment and Betrayal of Christ (Matthew 26). Thursday is Maundy Thursday, which originates from Christ’s command that His disciples love one another (John 13:34). In the evening the Washing of the Feet (Vodunlva) takes place in remembrance of the events of the Last Supper. Late Thursday evening the betrayal and torment of Christ, Tenebrae (Latin for darkness; in Armenian Khavaroum), is commemorated. In one of the most dramatic ceremonies, Gospel readings describing Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, the betrayal by Judas, and denial by Peter, are read interspersed with the singing of hymns composed by Nerses Shnorhali, some of the most beautiful hymns in the Armenian Church. Holy Friday (Avak Ourpat), the solemnest day in the Christian calendar, commemorates the crucifixion, death and burial of our Lord.

 

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THE RAISING OF LAZARUS

March 23, 2013 by admin

       This Saturday, March 23, the Armenian Church commemorates the Raising of Lazarus as told in the Gospel of John, Chapter 11.

       Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha were good friends of Jesus. Their home in Bethany (near Jerusalem) was Jesus’ home whenever he was in Jerusalem. Lazarus’s sudden death threw his sisters into deep mourning. Jesus also wept for his friend. John’s gospel account emphasizes the fact that Lazarus was indeed dead by pointing out that his body was in the tomb. Jesus’ raising of Lazarus convinced many people of his unique powers, and according to John, the authorities took steps to try to silence him.

       Lazarus personifies the whole of humankind and Bethany represents the whole world. Lazarus Saturday is the real beginning of the Cross. Its major themes are the forthcoming victory of Christ over death, the supreme sacrifice of love, and the resurrection as the ultimate triumph of love.

       A hymn traditionally sung on Saturday evening (eve of Palm Sunday) says: “With the raising of Lazarus by which the dead were given hope, the descendants of Adam were also raised….” Thus, as the Lenten period comes to an end, we are greeted by the hope of Christ’s promise of the resurrection of humankind.

       The forty days of Great Lent (Medz Bahk) come to an end with Vespers on the Friday prior to the commemoration of the Raising of Lazarus. A new fasting period for Holy Week begins on Monday and continues through Holy Saturday. 

 

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ST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM

February 23, 2013 by admin

This Saturday, February 23, the Armenian Church commemorates St. Cyril (315-386) of Jerusalem, a doctor of the church. St. Cyril had a pleasant and conciliatory disposition, but he lived at a time when bishops were embroiled in bitter controversies and were quick to condemn any attempts at compromises, even calling such attempts as treason. Sixteen years of his thirty-five years as a bishop were spent in exile. When a famine hit Jerusalem, he sold some of the possessions of the church to raise money for the poor starving people. He was condemned for selling church property and was banished. His best known work that has survived, “The Catechetical Lectures,” is believed to be one of the earliest systematic accounts of Christian theology. The lectures consist of an introductory lecture, followed by eighteen lectures on the Christian faith that were used during Lent for those preparing to be baptized on Easter, and five lectures on the sacraments to be used after Easter. The lectures have been translated into many languages, including English and Armenian, and are noted for their presentation of the Christian faith in a positive light and maintaining a balance between correct belief and holy action.

       Thousands of pilgrimages came to Jerusalem for Holy Week. Cyril instituted the liturgical forms for that week as they were observed in Jerusalem. A detailed account of Holy

Week observances in Jerusalem in the fourth century is available thanks to a woman named Egeria, believed by some to be a nun, who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and wrote letters describing the liturgical practices.

From the Armenian Church Eastern Prelacy’s Crossroads E-Newsletter

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Feast of Vartanants

February 6, 2013 by admin

This year, on Thursday, February 7, the Armenian Church celebrates the Feast of Vartanants, commemorating the war between pagan Persia and Christian Armenia in 451. The king of Persia ordered all Christians under his rule to abandon Christianity and embrace Zoroastrianism. The Armenian clergy and ruling princes refused to follow this dictum. As recorded by the historian Yeghishe, the Christian soldiers took an oath to fight the enemies of truth: “We are ready for persecution and death and every affliction and torture for the sake of the holy churches which our forefathers entrusted to us by the power of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby we were reborn ourselves by torments and blood. For we recognize the Holy Gospel as our Father, and the apostolic universal church as our Mother. Let no evil partition come between us to separate us from her.”

Vartan Mamigonian was the leader of the Armenians in the decisive battle of Avarayr, and although outnumbered, the Armenians put up a valiant defense. Vartan and many of his soldiers were killed, but the Persians suffered greater casualties and with this battle the Persians recognized the strong commitment the Armenians had for their Christian faith.

On the eve of the battle of Avarayr, Vartan spoke to his men, assuring them that righteousness was on their side and encouraged them to be brave and fearless:

“I entreat you, therefore, my brave companions, especially because many of you surpass me in valor and precede me in princely rank. But since you, of your own free will, have selected me as your leader and commander, let my words be pleasant and agreeable to you all, great and small: Fear not the heathen hordes and never turn your backs to the frightful sword of mortal men; because should our Lord grant us victory, we shall destroy their might and the cause of righteousness shall be exalted. But if the time has come for us to meet a holy death in this battle, let us accept our fate with joyful heart, without mingling cowardice with our valor and courage. … Our Commander is not a mere man, but the Commander-in-chief of all martyrs. Fear is a sign of doubt; but as we have repudiated doubt long since, let fear also disappear from our hearts and minds.”

The struggle continued for more than thirty years. In 484 Vahan Mamigonian, nephew of Vartan, successfully negotiated the Treaty of Nvarsag, the first document in history granting religious freedom and home rule, preceding the Magna Charta by nearly 750 years.

Posted from Crossroads E-Newsletter by the Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Church.

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