On April 24th, the 93rd anniversary of the Armenian genocide [1] , the Armenian community of Jerusalem gathered in the seminary gardens in front of the new monument in memory of their people’s Calvary.
Stone pillars, straight as tombs, somber and embossed with symbols and crosses. Their names, affixed that very day, refer to the principal sites of the massacres and deportations. They stand in perpetual testimony.
On that same day, adding to the symbolism, Oriental Christians celebrated Holy Thursday, the day whose liturgy reminds us that Jesus gave his Flesh and Blood as food and that he offered it on the Cross, taking onto himself all the consequences of original sin throughout the history of humankind. "In my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church," said Saint Paul (Col 1:24). This participation in the suffering of the Cross was the mystery of the Armenian Calvary.
The Armenian population makes up a significant proportion of Jerusalem Christians. In the Armenian Quarter, maps and posters are placed at regular intervals along the walls or on doors, showing pilgrims and visitors the routes of the deportations, chronology of events, extracts from contemporary testimonies, photos.
The Armenian people gave its testimony even to the point of martyrdom and today it is still faithful to itself. Its steadfastness here in Jerusalem reminds us of its life force and leaves no one indifferent.
As the Armenian-American writer William Saroyan put it:
Go ahead, destroy Armenia, see if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then, see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For, when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a new Armenia."
Holy Land pilgrims, do not hesitate to discover the bit of Armenia that is in the Holy Land.
A. de G.
[1] April 24th is the day that was chosen to commemorate the Armenian genocide committed 93 years ago. This is, in fact, the date in 1915 when 300 Armenian personages, public figures and leaders, were arrested, deported and killed on the pretext of an "Armenian plot", accused of collaboration with the Russian enemy during the First World War, unleashing the first genocide of the twentieth century, the one for which the term "crime against humanity" was coined. What followed begins to be known: deportation, torture, mass executions, forced Islamization, and a death toll of around a million victims.
Stone pillars, straight as tombs, somber and embossed with symbols and crosses. Their names, affixed that very day, refer to the principal sites of the massacres and deportations. They stand in perpetual testimony.
On that same day, adding to the symbolism, Oriental Christians celebrated Holy Thursday, the day whose liturgy reminds us that Jesus gave his Flesh and Blood as food and that he offered it on the Cross, taking onto himself all the consequences of original sin throughout the history of humankind. "In my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church," said Saint Paul (Col 1:24). This participation in the suffering of the Cross was the mystery of the Armenian Calvary.
The Armenian population makes up a significant proportion of Jerusalem Christians. In the Armenian Quarter, maps and posters are placed at regular intervals along the walls or on doors, showing pilgrims and visitors the routes of the deportations, chronology of events, extracts from contemporary testimonies, photos.
The Armenian people gave its testimony even to the point of martyrdom and today it is still faithful to itself. Its steadfastness here in Jerusalem reminds us of its life force and leaves no one indifferent.
As the Armenian-American writer William Saroyan put it:
Go ahead, destroy Armenia, see if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then, see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For, when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a new Armenia."
Holy Land pilgrims, do not hesitate to discover the bit of Armenia that is in the Holy Land.
A. de G.
[1] April 24th is the day that was chosen to commemorate the Armenian genocide committed 93 years ago. This is, in fact, the date in 1915 when 300 Armenian personages, public figures and leaders, were arrested, deported and killed on the pretext of an "Armenian plot", accused of collaboration with the Russian enemy during the First World War, unleashing the first genocide of the twentieth century, the one for which the term "crime against humanity" was coined. What followed begins to be known: deportation, torture, mass executions, forced Islamization, and a death toll of around a million victims.