YEREVAN (Armradio) — Pope Francis, who died at the age of 88 this morning, paid a three-day visit to Armenia in 2016. The Pope described the visit to the Christian nation a “pilgrimage.”
“I come as a pilgrim, during this Jubilee Year, to draw upon the ancient wisdom of your people and to drink from the wellspring of your faith, steadfast as your famous crosses sculpted in stone,” the Pope said in a message ahead of the visit.
Pope Franics visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial. After a prayer at the memorial to the Armenian Genocide victims, the Pope visited the Memory Alley, where he watered and blessed a fir-tree planted on his behalf.
At Tsitsernakaberd Memorial, the Pope left following note in the Book of Honorary Guests:
“Here I pray with pain in my heart, so that never more will there be tragedies like this, so that humanity does not forget and knows how to overcome the evil with good. May God grant the beloved Armenian people and the entire world peace and consolation. May God protect the memory of the Armenian people. Memory should not be diluted or forgotten. Memory is source of peace and the future. Francis 25.06.2016.”
His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, and His Holiness Pope Francis led an Ecumenical Encounter and Prayer for Peace at the Republic Square in Yerevan.
Speaking at an open air prayer service in Yerevan to leaders of all the Churches in Armenia, the Pope called on people of faith to abandon “rigid opinions and personal interests”, showing instead humility and generosity on the path towards full Christian unity.
Pope Francis, in his words to the Christian leaders, also spoke of that “immense and senseless slaughter”, saying it is not only right, but also a duty to keep the memory of that tragedy alive. But memory, he insisted, must be transformed by love and by the driving force of faith to sow seeds of peace for the future. Memory, infused with love, he said, becomes capable of setting out on new and unexpected paths, where designs of hatred become projects of reconciliation.
Hs Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians and His Holiness Pope Francis blessed the soil and water brought from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait, Iran and Turkey. The soil and water were later poured in to the Noah’s Ark.
Authored by American Armenian designer Michael Aram, the model of Noah’s Ark was taken to Vatican.
Pope Francis and Catholicos Karekin II signed a joint declaration giving thanks for the progress towards Christian unity and appealing for peace in the Middle East and other regions torn apart by conflict, terrorism and religious persecution.
Pope Francis ended his three-day journey to Armenia by visiting the Khor Virap Monastery—a significant holy site linked to Armenia’s conversion to Christianity.
During his visit to Khor Virap, the pope made his way to the room known as the “Well of Saint Gregory,” to light a candle before making his way to the nearby chapel to pray.
“Before leaving this land which Pope Francis has described as ‘beloved,’ he expressed the idea that it was a grace to find himself on these heights where, beneath the gaze of Mount Ararat, the very silence seems to speak. And where the khatchkars–the stone crosses–recount a singular history bound up with rugged faith and immense suffering. A history, he went on to say, replete with magnificent testimonies to the Gospel, to which you the Armenian people are heirs,” reported Vatican Radio.
