ARMENIAN PILGRIMS PARTICIPATE IN RELIGIOUS PROCESSION IN NETHERLANDS (VIDEO)

news.am

July 11 2011
Armenia

A group of Armenian pilgrims, representatives of Christian community
of the Netherlands, participated in a religious procession to the tomb
of Saint Servatius who first spread Christianity in the territory of
Belgium and the Netherlands.

Saint Servatius, the first bishop of Maastricht, is venerated
as a Christian saint and the saint in Catholicism, and in Eastern
Christianity. Representatives of various Christian confessions go on
pilgrimage to his grave.

Legends say he was born in Armenia and is a distant relative of John
the Baptists and Jesus through his mother, now called Memelia. He
arrived in Maastricht and became the first bishop of this city. Here
he died in 384. Large numbers of pilgrims still visit the basilica
of Saint Servaas at the Vrijthof, built over the grave of this saint.