Tuesday is all Saints day in the Western church, and like so many things in our faith life, what we understand upon hearing the word ‘saint’ has little to do with what our scriptures meant by it. Our understanding of saints is now way too big or way too small. We make saints too big…
For God had something better in mind for us, so that (the saints) would not reach perfection without us. (Heb 11:40) Tomorrow is All Saints Day in the Western Church, and in the coming weeks the Armenian Church will celebrate All Saints in our own way. Of course, in our church the name for all Saints…
Nearly a thousand years after his death, his influence is still felt every day in the Armenian Church. The soaring hymns that praise God, the sensitive prayers that beg His forgiveness, the policies of mercy and outreach that guide the operations of the church—all bear the mark of St. Nersess Shnorhali. His title Shnorhali means “full of grace”—and the…
A young woman on the run. A beastly king obsessed by her beauty. And the destiny of a kingdom hanging in the balance. Watch the story of St. Hripsime and her sisters, whose martyrdom brought a king to ruin, and brought Armenia to the brink of a revolution in faith.
The Armenian Church canonized the holy martyrs of the Armenian Genocide at Holy Etchmiadzin on April 23, 2015, in observance of the 100th anniversary of that cataclysm. This video explores the significance of that canonization, as well as the larger meaning of sainthood and martyrdom in the Christian tradition.