On the 27^th of February, H.E. Kevork Archbishop Noradounguian celebrated a Holy Mass of the feast of St. Vardanants in the house of the Armenian Sisters of Immaculate Conception, with the participation of the sisters of Gyumri and the aged people of the Day Care Center for the Elderly, also the students of the School of Arts and Crafts, which are under the care of the sisters. His Eminence refered in his homily to the memeory of Vardanants military leaders and their historical role in the endurance of the existence and the faith of the Armenian people. He said:

”Vardanians were convinced, that their only religion was only Christianity as the Armenian identity, and they were ready to fight wars against the persians to defend them … After the paganism, Christ granted a new meaning to the life of our people. Faith in Jesus also gave literacy and literature to our people: St. Mesrop and St. Sahak gave them to the people who had accepted Christianity. Thanks to the labours of Mesrop, Jesus began to speak Armenian to the Armenian people. Our people started to interact with God without a translator, in their mother tongue. Our translation of the Bible is considered as the ”Quin of Translations”. Armenian people were baptized first with water and Holy Spirit, and the second baptism was accepted by Armenian alphabet”.

The same day, in the evening, with the initiative of the sisters, a performance was staged in the hall of the Center of Tiramayr Hayastani, dedicated to St. Vardanants and rehearsed by Nara Santoyan, with the participation of the students of the Arts and Crafts School, also the members of ”Tiramayr Hayastani” choir (conductor R. Mlkeyan). The Ordinary Archbishop Kevork Noradounguian, Rev. Fr. Hovhannes Melikyan and Fr. Hovsep Galstyan were also present. Sr. Narine Simonyan, the Superior of the House, said in a welcome speech, that Vardanians have left for us a legacy of faith and homeland. She also recalled the words of Cardinal Aghajanian: ”Faith and homeland are like the two wings of a bird, and in case if they are absent, a bird cannot fly”. Sr. Narine also recalled one of the beatitudes of the Lord: ”Blessed are those who are persecuted for the justice!”.

After the wonderful and emotional performance, His Excellency spoke again about the two baptisms of Armenian people, to which he added yet another-the baptism of blood-that is the martyrdom of Vardanants in the field of Avarair, in 451: ”With this three baptisms of water, literacy and blood, the spiritual and national identity of Armenian people was established. This is the reason, why we Armenians, for more than one thousand and five hundreed years, do not get bored of annualy recalling the martyrdom of Vardanants and Ghevondiants and will recall always. In the next thousand years we shall see from above these same rehearsals being performed with the same enthusiasm, the same spirit. The baptism of blood has repeated itself in the life the Armenian people in the Armenian Genocide and until now, in the last war. We lose lives of soldiers, but we gain lives of others”.

27․02. 2025

Translated by Fr. Hovsep Galstyan

Secretariat of the Ordinariate