When we say Holy Etchmiadzin we reaffirm Orthodox and Catholics belief in sacred spaces. This includes the bricks and stones, architecture and icons of a place, as these can point to the story of God and man just as the words of the Bible do. And it is the story that is sacred. One Christian put it this way; a sacred space is a storied place.  A sacred place preserves in its form, its icons, and crucially the people who toil there-the transformational stories of our faith.