Commemoration Services for the Holy Martyrs of the Armenian Genocide at the Mother See
24.04.2023
On April 24, Commemoration Day of the Armenian Genocide and the Holy Martyrs, the Brotherhood of Holy Etchmiadzin lead by His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians; participated in the Divine Liturgy at St. Gayane Monastery. On this day, the relics of the holy martyrs of the Armenian Genocide were taken out for the faithful.
The Celebrant was Very Rev. Fr. Proto-Archimandrite Shahe Ananyan, Dean of the Gevorkian Theological Seminary and Vaskenian Theological Academy.
In his sermon, the Celebrant, referring to the historical events of the beginning of the 20th century and the Armenian Genocide, specifically mentioned: “For one hundred and eight years, the fact of genocide remains in our national memory as an undeniable, indelible shame, which is stigmatized on the face of humanity at that time, and why not, today, as the first genocide. Eight of those one hundred and eight years are very important, because for eight years we are no longer commemorating the victims of the genocide, but the martyrs canonized by the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church.
…Almost all massacres and genocides in the world are born of indifference. Because of this, not only genocide of human life can happen, but also genocide of mind, soul, language, and spiritual values. Human and national indifference destroys all possible boundaries.
The sacrament of the martyrs is a message of loyalty to us. Loyalty to all the values that were created and continue to be created in the life of our nation. If this loyalty is not there, if we indifferently try to live our life as a time given to all living beings, then we are not in the sacrament of that loyalty.
Loyalty to the end, because in loyalty lies what we call martyrdom. We are martyrs in our lives, by our efforts, by the struggle for the preservation of our values, by the struggle for our faith, our faith in Jesus Christ. We are fighting to stay in the sacrament of loyalty."
At the conclusion, Father Shahe told the faithful Armenians to stay away from indifference, which is the parent and end of every sin in the spiritual life of a faithful, and to be faithful in everything.
