The People
Armenia and Armenians
Sunrise on the Ararat mountain is the symbol of the renewal after so many years of atheism of Armenia, a small country but very significant to the Lord.
The film "My Ararat... Be Blessed for all Eternity!" was produced during a very important event: the celebrations for the 1700th anniversary of Armenia’s conversion to Christianity.
Besides showing the Armenians’ history, the film shows some interesting elements that may seem exotic to the rational Western audiences, as for instance, the letters of the first Armenian alphabet, created by St. Mesrop Mashtots and printed in gold (the film crew was allowed to enter Matenederan, the major archives of ancient manuscripts). The film also shows Geghard – a cave monastery – as well as the remarkable architecture of Armenia’s main church at Etchmiadzin.
The interview with Catholicos Karekin II is also very interesting, and the scenes showing French singer Charles Aznavour, whose parents were Armenian, singing the “Ave Maria” in front of Pope John Paul II and Catholicos Karekin II during the blessing ceremony for St. Gregory the Illuminor’s Cathedral are touching: the microphone shakes in his hands with the emotion…
The film’s authors are very careful in respecting Armenian culture and traditions, and succeeded in catching and displaying real-life episodes without being sentimental: from the painful and moving commemoration of the more than one and a half million Armenian victims of the genocide in Turkey, to peaceful and harmonious images from everyday life.
We can thus appreciate the simple beauty of common people: an old man cultivating a garden; an old woman baking bread; children; Christian members of the Armenian Apostolic Church who tell us about their religious experiences… all of them in a straightforward way, looking at us with trust and purity. The film presents a respectful portrait of this population, showing real affection to them, as they have always rejected hatred or revenge – a very rare example of feeling in these times of devastating conflict, and a reason to study and admire this almost unknown population.
Background
The "Holy Land"
“God did not forget Noah and all the wild and domestic animals... and the 17th day of the 7th month the Ark stopped on a mountain of the Ararat chain”.
The image of this high and fascinating mountain, which can be seen from everywhere in Armenia (a small country today, but formerly big and powerful), lives in the hearts of Armenians, wherever they are.
On Mount Ararat Noah sacrificed to God to give thanks for his salvation. It was here that men and women began to repopulate the Earth after the Flood. That is why Armenians think that God gave them Mount Ararat for eternal safekeeping. Although the Armenians have had a very tragic history, having been forced to disperse throughout the world, all Armenians remember their roots.
In ancient times, the Armenians took from Greece and Rome the best of their civilizations: the Hellenistic culture and the love of eloquence and organizational skills typical of the Roman Empire.
In the early 4th century (in 301 AD), the King of Armenia Tiridates III accepted Christianity as state religion. The first Armenian Catholicos St. Gregory the Illuminator baptized Armenia and this defined the nation’s future destiny.
With a sword in their hands, the Armenians protected their faith in the 4th century; they have preserved it and passed it down to their children for many generations, suffering incalculable bitter losses since then till the dreadful years of the genocide in the 20th century…
Did you know...
Christianity in Armenia
… that the Adoption of Christianity in Armenia is the most important event in the history of the Armenian nation. It happened in the year 301. St. Gregory the Illuminator, who became the first Catholicos of the Armenian Church (302-306), and the Armenian King Tiridates III (287-330) played paramount roles in the adoption of Christianity.
According to the records of 5th-century Armenian historians, Tiridates arrived in Armenia in 287 with Roman legions to reclaim his father's throne. In the estate Eriza, he performed a sacrificial ritual in a temple to the pagan goddess Anahit. One of the king's men, Gregory, refused to offer a sacrifice before the statue because he was a Christian. Tiridates then discovered that Gregory was the son of Anak, the assassin of Tiridates' father, Khosrov II. For these “crimes,” Gregory was thrown in the Artashat Dungeon, a place for those who were sentenced to death. That same year, the king issued two orders: the first demanded the arrest of all the Christians in Armenia and the confiscation of their property, while the second called for the execution of anyone found hiding Christians. These orders demonstrate how dangerous Christianity was considered for the state and the state religion – paganism.
Armenia's adoption of Christianity is directly connected to the martyrdom of St. Rhipsime and her fellow virgins. According to legend, a group of Christian virgins born in Rome fled to the East while trying to escape the romantic advances of the emperor, Diocletian.
After visiting Jerusalem and its holy sites, the virgins passed through Edessa and reached the edge of Armenia, where they settled down in the grape-growing region near Vagharshapat.
Tiridates, overwhelmed by the beauty of the virgin Rhipsime, wanted to take her as his wife, but he met with desperate resistance. For her disobedience, Tiridates ordered that all of the girls should be tortured and killed. Rhipsime, along with her 32 friends, died in the northeastern part of Vagharshapat. The girls' preceptress, Gayan, and two other girls died in the southern part of the city, and one girl, who had been sick, was tortured in a wine press.
The executions of the Rhipsime girls happened in 300 or 301. The deaths caused the king to suffer a serious shock to the soul, which led to a severe nervous disorder. In the 5th century, this illness was known among the people as “swineness,” which is why sculptors have depicted Tiridates with the head of a pig.
The king's sister, Khosrovadukht, kept having a dream in which she was told that Tiridates could only be cured by a prisoner in the dungeon, Gregory. Gregory, who had miraculously survived, was released from the dungeon and festively welcomed in Vagharshapat. He immediately gathered and buried the remains of the great virgin martyrs, and then, after a 66-day propagation of Christianity, he healed the king.
King Tiridates, along with his entire court, allowed himself to be baptized and announced that Christianity would be the state religion of Armenia. Soon, three chapels were built on the sites where the virgins were martyred. It served as a telling illustration of the enormous meaning that was given by the people then to the heroic deeds of the holy virgins.
The new religion needed to have its clergy. To be consecrated as a bishop, St. Gregory the Illuminator solemnly set off for Caesarea in Cappadocia, where he was ordained by the Cappadocian bishops led by Leonty of Caesarea. Bishop Peter of Sebaste performed the ritual, elevating St. Gregory to the post in Armenia. The ceremony was not held in the capital Vagharshapat, but in the remote Ashtishat, which had been the seat of the bishopric.
Upon his return to Vagharshapat, Gregory the Illuminator started work on the construction of a cathedral. According to legend, St. Gregory had a vision: the heavens opened and down came a beam of light and a multitude of angels. Behind them could be seen a human image with a golden hammer in his hand; the vision moved in the direction of Vagharshapat. The next moment, the hammer came crashing down to earth, creating a gaping hole from the depths of which rang out a terrible howl from hell. Then, on that same spot, arose a golden pedestal in the shape of an altar, and from it rose a flaming pillar with a cloudy cover, above which shone a cross.
The angel that appeared before Gregory explained the vision: “The human image,” he said, “is God: the building crowned with a cross signifies the Universal Church, which is under the protection of the Cross, for on it died the Son of God. This place should become a place of prayer. Throw yourself down before the divine grace shown to you by God and erect a church on this spot.”
The church built there was named Etchmiadzin, which is Armenian for “the descent of the only-begotten,” that is, Jesus Christ.