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POPE TO GIVE RELICS TO ARMENIAN CHURCH


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Posted 05 November 2000 - 08:09 PM

EWTN News

-Nov-2000 -- EWTN Vatican Update
POPE TO GIVE RELICS TO ARMENIAN CHURCH

VATICAN, Nov. 3, 00 (CWNews.com) -- In a solemn ceremony scheduled
for November 10, Pope John Paul II will turn the relics of St.
Gregory the Illuminator over to representatives of the Armenian
Apostolic Church.

The transfer will occur as part of an ecumenical service held in St.
Peter's Basilica, at which the Holy Father will preside along with
Catholicos Karekin II Nersissian, the leader of the Armenian
Apostolic Church.

It was St. Gregory the Illuminator who brought the Christian faith to
Armenia in the year 301 AD, making that land the first officially
Christian nation. St. Gregory had been a servant of the king, who was
jailed for refusing to worship a pagan idol. He eventually left the
country, became a bishop, and finally returned to Armenia to baptize
many of his countrymen- - including the king who had imprisoned him.

The relics of the saint have been kept in the Naples cathedral for
years. They will now be moved to Erevan, Armenia, where the Armenian
Apostolic Church is building a cathedral dedicated to St. Gregory.

During the course of a four-day visit to Rome, Catholicos Karekin is
expected to issue a formal invitation for Pope John Paul II to visit
Armenia. The Pontiff had planned to make such a visit in July 1999,
but postponed the trip because the previous head of the Armenian
church, Karekin I, was terminally ill. The Armenian Apostolic Church
split with Rome after the Council of Chalcedon, as a consequence of
Christological disputes. Those disputes were formally resolved in a
joint statement of faith adopted by Pope John Paul II and Catholicos
Karekin I. The leaders of both churches have expressed optimism about
the prospects for a restoration of full communion.




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