TO BETTER KNOW
ARMENIANHISTORY
Sharing a bit of Armenian history & traditions also makes you want to be with us on D-Day!
In 301, Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion, amidst the long-lasting geo-political rivalry over the region.
It established a church that today exists independently of both the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches, having become so in 451 after having rejected the Council of Chalcedon.
The Armenian Apostolic Church is a part of the Oriental Orthodox communion, not to be confused with the Eastern Orthodox communion. The first Catholicos of the Armenian church was Saint Gregory the Illuminator.
ARMENIA’S
PAGAN PAST
MORE ON
(...)Throughout the centuries, despite their constant struggles with invasions and domination, the people remained steadfast in their religious beliefs, creative, industrious and true to their heritage. Family and education were, and still are, paramount to them.(...)
(...) At the wedding of a young couple at Garni Temple, the pagan priest, wearing a robe, begins the ceremony with the words: “Oh Mother Anahit, Mother of all mothers…” He then says to the couple, “May the breath of your ancestors be in you… and your feet firmly on this ground…,” as he briefly holds a short knife (images of Mithra were often depicted with such a knife) in the flames of the cauldron that stands before him and the couple. The pagan priest then slowly removes the knife, and gently touches the top of the bride’s head, then the groom’s, as he blesses them with the words: “Anahit, with your mother’s love, I bless these rings… May the rings shimmer always on their fingers… Praise to you, Mother Anahit!” After wine is poured from a red clay jug into red clay cups and offered to the couple, the priest, and the wedding party, the priest then instructs the couple to each reach into a basket filled with pieces of wood and place their selected piece of wood into the flaming cauldron. They are then congratulated and wished a happy and bountiful life. (...) By Knarik O. Meneshian
Read More:
https://armenianweekly.com/2019/11/27/the-remnants-of-armenias-pagan-past/?fbclid=IwAR3CbJ185
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Geghard (Photo: George Aghjayan)
Mekhitar Heratsi & Catholicos Nerses Shnorhali
THE CATHEDRAL
SERPOTZ TARKMANTCHATZ
On a breezy Sunday morning, families walk hurriedly into Marseille’s Armenian Cathedral.
A miniature replica of Etchmiadzin – the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church – The Church of the Holy Translators on Prado Avenue was built in 1928 to receive refugees fleeing a Turkish onslaught in Asia Minor.
Ալէքսանտրա
և
Կարէն
RELIGIOUS
CEREMONY
INSTRUCTIONS & UNDERSTANDING
Armenian Apostolic Church:
between Catholics and Orthodox, an example of ecumenism.
Initially, you have the Apostolic Church, or rather the churches
apostolic union between them. From it flows in direct line the church
Catholic and Orthodox churches.
The tradition is that this religion was introduced by the apostles
Barthélémy and Thadée in the 1st century. In 301, the country became the first state
to adopt Christianity as the official religion at the coronation
of King Tiridate IV by Gregory I the Illuminator.
Today, Christianity is divided into three main branches:
Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant. The Armenian Apostolic Church
none of these confessions and this goes back to the 5th century, when she refused
the canons of the Council of Chalcedon. The Holy Armenian Apostolic Church,
despite its negative stance against Protestant teachings
and Chalcedonians maintain fraternal relations with other churches
and considers himself as Catholic as well as Orthodox.
Our Armenian marriage
The ceremony is celebrated by the priest Aram Ghazaryan.
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