Ցեղասպանութեան Զոհերու Սրբադասման հարցը

11 comments

1. Sainthood for Our Martyrs

   This is a fantastic idea. Our Genocide martyrs are entitled to sainthood. 

   As we get closer to the 100th anniversary of the Genocide, I haven't seen a commemoration dramatic enough to inspire Armenians and to grab the attention of non-Armenians. Re sainthood of our martyrs, how about a special "sainthood" ceremony in every Armenian church around the globe, along with synchronized demonstrations in front of Turkish embassies and demonstrations everywhere there's an Armenian community? The demonstrators would carry large images of individuals slain by the Turks.

   Sorry for using the word "sizzle", but that's what we need to draw the attention of non-Armenians. We need a full-court ceremony, starting at Echmiadzin, with religious costumes and other paraphernalia. We need a dramatic stunt. Unfortunately, that's the only way to get media coverage, short of violence, which I deplore just like all Armenians I know.

   1. Re: Sainthood for our Martyrs

      The clergy with whom I associate the issue of sainthood of the Armenian Genocide martyrs is the late Catholicos of blessed memory Karekin I Sarkissian of All Armenians.

      Articulate and outspoken he was, he did not seem to pursue the idea and prepare the grounds to elevate the martyrs to sainthood. In other words the idea did not sizzle but fizzled out. There may be good reasons for it. An indifferent and a callous world should not propel us to elevate our martyrs to sainthood when saints they were not. They were ordinary every day folks and had every right to go on with their lives.

      Yes, the victims of the Armenian Genocide were not saints, but those who perpetrated their killing are murderers. Those who ‘inherited’ the spoils of the dead and passed it to their next generation should come to terms with the descendants of those who survived.

      1. Saints of the Genocide

         The victims of the Genocide of Armenians deserve to be made saints because they were slain, by the Turks and Kurds, for being Christian. Armenians who converted to Islam were spared.

         The Armenian victims can't be compared to innocent, civilian victims of war because what was done to Armenians was not as a result of war. It was a deliberate plan to eliminate them. There was no war between Turks and Armenians. Armenians were Ottoman citizens, and they had no army. The main reason Armenians died was because they were followers of Christ. Therefore they are entitled to sainthood.

         We consider the Vartanants soldiers, who died at Avarayr, saints because they died for their faith, to retain Armenian Christianity. Why not the 1.5 million unarmed Armenians who were slain because they were Christian?

2. Sainthood for Genocide Victims

   The victims of wars are not elevated to the ranks of saints. We build memorials in their honor and we respect their sacrifice.

3. Sainthood for Victims

   A word or concept can be watered down or abused by overuse, destroying the original specific meaning. (e.g. "gentrification is committing genocide against our neighborhood's traditional makeup" is an obvious distortion of the concept of Genocide).

   The notion of declaring sainthood of all victims of the Genocide dilutes and degrades the very notion of sainthood. Why stop there? Let's declare that any Armenian death by a non-believer throughout history is also justification for sainthood, regardless of the moral or religious character of the deceased. You are promoting the casual abandonment of ancient religious standards for a cheap PR stunt. Have you no shame?

   1. Armenian Genocide Saints

      Whoa! Hold on to your horses, Gary. You made a valid point, but you went overboard with the "Have you no shame?" bit.

      Do you know the Armenian Apostolic Church requirements for sainthood? Working miracles? That's nonsense because miracles are impossible. Leading a "saintly" life? Whatever that is. Sacrificing one's life? What? 

      Genocide victims sacrificed their most precious possession…their lives… for Christianity. What more do you want to declare them saints?

      This is not a stunt. It's an overdue recognition. For 100 years we have fought in the secular arena for Genocide recognition. How about the Church joining us in the effort… for people who died for their religion?

4. Sainthood for our martyrs

   To talk of saints is hardly free of controversy.The subject of sanctity and of the means by which it is normally achieved,namely asceticism and  renunciation,cannot be altogether a suitable topic for an urbane dinner-part conversation.

   The last person in the Armenian Church declared saint is St Gregory of Tatev (1346-1409). He became a saint after his death, not because he died for his faith but because his life was  such conspicuous example of Christian life and total devotion to the spiritual life.The practice developed out of the intense admiration for those who died in defense of their faith during the period of the persecution of the church in the early years of Christianity.

   The Orthodox Church does not follow any official procedure for recognition of saints.

   Victims of wars are not elevated to sainthood, except of wars in defense of the Christian faith (Vardanank'). Those innocent civilians killed in the bombing raids over Coventry, Dresden or the Jews in the gas chambers of Hitler are remembered but not venerated. Memorials are built in their memory to remind mankind of its destructive nature.

   Those who wish to maintain the elevated truth of traditional Christianity need to draw with even greater harshness the boundaries between  their own version of 'true religion' and the habitual trivializing of it by their misconception. Saints were believed to be saints by  the grace of God, and not  through patronage. 
    

   1. Incorrect Name

      Rev. Nersessian,

      I would like to point out an error you've, surprisingly, made in your letter. You call our Church Orthodox. We are not Orthodox; we don't belong to the Orthodox Church. Our Church is called Armenian Apostolic Church. I realize many Armenians make the same mistake, but a "Hayr Sourp" of our Church should know better.

5. Name of the Armenian Church

   Dear Hayorti,
   I am grateful to you for your prompt but incorrect observation. The true Church has four marks: she is One, Apostolic, Universal, and Holy.
   1.She is ONE because our Lord Jesus Christ founded one Church
   2.The Church is Apostolic because the Apostles Thaddeus and  Bartholomew brought the religion of Christ to Armenia and ordained the first Armenian bishops.
   3.The Church is HOLY because Our Lord Jesus Christ made her holy.
   4.The teaching and practices  of the Armenian church is « «Ուղղափառ» i.e. ORTHODOX " as once delivered to the saints" and as defined by the first three ecumenical councils of Nicaea in 325, of Constantinople in 381 and of Ephesus in 431.
   A Church that has all the above four predicates is an Orthodox Church and hence a member of the Universal «Ընդհանրական» (Catholic) church.
   The Armenian word for orthodox is « ուղղափառ». This adjective applies to the Armenian Church, along with the 15 Orthodox National Churches and the 4 Oriental Orthodox Churches.
   The Armenian Divine Liturgy it is described as that of  "The Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church  Հայ Առաքելական Ուղղափառ Եկեղեցւոյ».
    

   1. Not So

      Dear Rev. Nersessian,
      In the first centuries after the Armenians became Christian (the first three ecumenical conferences), we were theologically one with the other Churches, such as the Byzantium-dominated Orthodox Church. As you know, we didn't attend the Chalcedon gathering. That marked the beginning of our Church's separation from the Orthodox Church. We are orthodox ("ooghapar") but we are not Orthodox. The head of the Orthodox Church is in Constantinople. The head of our Church is in Echmiadzin. For 1,500 years we've had political reasons, in addition to theological, not to identify with the Orthodox Churches.

6. Canonization Or Not

   The recent conclave, held by the Synod of the Armenian Apostolic Church, was presided over by the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I. The gathering was attended by sixty-one bishops and archbishops.

   The press office of the Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin has announced that the synod has decided to have Holy Mass on April 23, 2015 to canonize the victims of the Armenian Genocide, given that April 24 is designated Genocide Memorial Day.

    

   The synod has also authorized a committee of experts to carry on the necessary studies concerning individual sanctification having in mind Gomidas Vartabed and others.

    

   Vicken Sarkissian, President Serzh Sarkissian’s chief-of-staff, in charge of the government programs commemorating the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, attended one of the sessions of the conclave and reported on the government's scheduled activities in 2015 in cooperation with Church in Armenia and in the Diaspora.

    

   The report concluded that the Ecclesiastical Fathers, who had attended the conclave, appealed to Christendom to join in prayer in 2015 to commemorate the centennial of the Genocide. They also appealed to the Armenian public to remain steadfast in pursuing the recognition and the condemnation of the Genocide perpetrated by Ottoman Turkey.

    

   A cursory search on the Internet indicated that the last person canonized by the Armenian Apostolic Church was Gregory of Datev, or Grigor Datevatsi (Armenian Գրիգոր Տաթևացի–1346 to 1409 or 1410). He was a philosopher and theologian. His sanctification took place about five-hundred-years ago.

    

   The decision of the Armenian Apostolic Synod to canonize the victims of the Armenian Genocide at the centennial of their memorial commemoration is bound to be controversial, although the idea was mulled over for some time but without much scholarship or much public debate.

    

   Vahe H. Apelian

Comments are closed.