CANONIZATION CEREMONY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MARTYRS TO BE AIRED IN GREECE
09:16, 12 March, 2015
ATHENS, MARCH 12, ARMENPRESS. The main ceremony of commemoration of
the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in Greece will be on
April 19 in Syntagma Square of Athens. An event will be held on that
very day, on the initiative of the Armenian community and the Greek
state. The representatives of the Greek parliament, government,
Ambassadors accredited to Greece, as well as cultural and public
figures will attend the event.
In a conversation with “Armenpress”, the Chairman of the Armenian
National Committee of Greece Kerob Ekizyan stated that it is considered
that the Greek political figures will make speeches at the event.
“People in Greece will follow the satellite broadcasting of the
ceremony of canonization of the Armenian Genocide martyrs, which
will be held at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. This way the
Greek-Armenians and Greece will participate in the canonization
ceremony,” Ekizyan concluded.
The Armenian Apostolic Church will be canonizing the victims of the
Armenian Genocide on April 23, 2015. This is the first time in 400
years, the Church will resume the rite of canonization.
There is no special number for Canonization, because it is not clear
how many genocide victims were followers of the Apostolic Church;
it will be a collective ritual.
The canonization will be an unprecedented event since the last saint
that was proclaimed and is remembered is St. Movses Tatevatsi, who
was canonized in the 18th century.
There are four conditions for Canonization, they are martyrdom for
the faith and the fatherland, pious life – pious behavior of an
individual or a collective, existence of miracles alive or dead,
and preaching the faith, spreading the belief.
The Armenian Church does not bestow sanctification, it merely
recognizes the saints or the sanctity of those people.
The ritual of canonization will be held at the Mother See of Holy
Etchmiadzin and will probably start at 16:00 and end at 19:15, which
will symbolize the year 1915. At the end, the bells of all Armenian
churches of the world will ring, after which there will be a moment
of silence and the Lord’s Prayer.