PAPAL LETTER MARKS 1700TH ANNIVERSARY OF BAPTISM OF ARMENIA

VATICAN CITY, MAY 28, 2001 (VIS) - Made public today was a Letter from Pope John Paul to His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of Cilicia, on the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of the baptism of the Armenian nation. On May 20, 301 notes the Pope, "St. Gregory the Illuminator baptized the Armenian King Tiridates III, ... and shortly thereafter the whole Armenian nation came to confess the Christian faith and to be baptized."

"The Risen Lord," he starts the Letter, dated May 20, "assured His disciples: 'I am with you always to the close of the age'. How many times in the course of Armenian history have your people put their whole trust in these words! In glorious times, when the Armenian nation could live the Christian faith in freedom and joy, ... (and) in dark periods, when bitter persecution and expatriation tormented the Armenian nation."

The Holy Father remarks that "the Catholicosate of Cilicia represents in a particular way the age-old pilgrimage of Armenian Christianity. When the ancient Armenian kingdom was attacked and eventually destroyed, many of the faithful fled to Cilica, where a new kingdom was established" and where "Armenian Christianity prospered for centuries, until in the late 19th and 20th centuries drastic political and social shifts caused the Armenian faithful to be again dispersed."

"Situated at a kind of crossroads between different peoples and cultures, the Catholicosate of Cilicia established ... cordial and fruitful exchanges with Byzantine, Syriac and Latin Christianity. ... Down the centuries, cordial relations also developed between the Catholicosate of Cilicia and the Catholic Church. Frequent exchanges of letters, and even attempts to restore full communion, were part of this continuing fraternal bond."

Calling the anniversary "a providential opportunity to celebrate and renew the fraternal bond" between us, John Paul II announced: "I am greatly pleased to be able to send you a prestigious relic of St. Gregory the Illuminator as a gesture of affection in the Lord." He added that similar relics were sent to His Holiness Karekin II and His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX, and writes: "We are not dividing the relics, we are working and praying that those who receive them will be united."

JPII-LETTER;BAPTISM ARMENIA;...;CATHOLICOS ARAM;VIS;20010528;Word: 370;