Lraper Church Bulletin 26/07/2005
Contact: Deacon Vagharshag Seropyan
Armenian Patriarchate
TR-34130 Kumkapi, Istanbul
T: +90 (212) 517-0970, 517-0971
F: +90 (212) 516-4833, 458-1365
lraper@lraper.org
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ORDINATION TO THE HOLY ORDER OF PRIESTHOOD

The Chancellery of the Armenian Patriarchate has officially announced
that the Holy Mystery of Ordination to the Order of Priesthood will be
celebrated on Thursday 28 July 2005, on the Feast of Saints Giragos and
Hughida in the Armenian Church of the Holy Mother of God in Besiktas,
Istanbul.

On Wednesday 27 July 2005, the Reverend Deacons Sahag Bicakciyan, Sevan
Civanyan, Harutyun Mkhitaryan and Hayk Koparyan will kneel at the main
door of the Holy Mother of God Patriarchal Church in Kumkapi and will be
officially called to the Holy Order of Priesthood by His Beatitude
Mesrob II, Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul & All Turkey, who will also
question the ordinands publicly regarding doctrinal matters.

On Thursday morning, the Holy Mystery of Ordination will be celebrated
in the Besiktas Armenian Church during the Holy Eucharist offered by His
Beatitude the Patriarch. According to the Holy Canons of the Armenian
Church, just before the Readings of the day, the Patriarch will first
lay hands on the heads of the deacons, conferring on them the Holy Order
of Priesthood.

The second part of the Mystery of Ordination will take place just before
the passing of the Kiss of Peace, when the Patriarch will anoint the
foreheads and both hands of the newly ordained priests with Holy Myron.

In keeping with the Holy Tradition of the Armenian Church, the new
priests will then enter a period of complete seclusion, of fasting and
meditation, before officiating at their first Divine Liturgy.

Saint Hughida (Julitta, also known as Juliot), a Christian widow, fled
from Iconium (modern Konya) with her three-year-old child Giragos
(Cyriacus) in order to avoid persecution during Emperor Diocletian’s
reign. The saintly Christian lady was captured and sentenced to death at
Tarsus in 305. Giragos made a childish attack on the sentencing
magistrate, and announced that he was a Christian like his mother. The
angry magistrate threw the child to the ground, smashing his skull and
killing him instantly. Following this, the child’s mother Saint Hughida
was also horribly tortured and died a martyr’s death. Legend says that
from the site of their burial there erupted a miraculous spring of water
that cured the sick and improved the health of those who were immersed
in it.

The Armenian Church of Saint Giragos in Diyarbakir is erected to the
glory of God and in memory of the martyred mother and child. The roof of
the church building has lately collapsed and the Patriarchal See is
awaiting permission from the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of
Turkey for the formation of a new parish council in order for the
restoration project to be implemented.