POPE LEO XIV HAILS ARMENIANS AS “INTREPID HERALDS OF THE SAVING WORD”

Pope Leo XIV expressed profound gratitude to the Armenian people for bearing witness to Christ, on Sunday, January 25, at the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  

“With deep gratitude, we remember the courageous Christian witness of the Armenian people throughout history, a history in which martyrdom has been a constant feature,” said the Pope. 

In the service celebrated at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, the Pope thanked the churches in Armenia for preparing the materials for this year’s Week of Prayer and extolled its ecumenical spirit as manifested by St. Nerses Shnorhali, the Gracious, in the 12th century, whom he described as a man ahead of his time in his commitment to Christian unity.    

“As my venerable predecessor St. John Paul II recalled, St. Nerses also teaches us the attitude we should adopt on our ecumenical journey: ‘Christians must have a profound interior conviction that unity is essential, not for strategic advantage or political gain but for the sake of preaching the Gospel’,” the Pope said.

After pointing out that Armenia was the first Christian nation, with King Tiridates baptized by Saint Gregory the Illuminator in the year 301, Pope Leo thanked “the intrepid heralds of the saving Word who spread the faith in Jesus Christ throughout Eastern and Western Europe.”

The service was the celebration of Second Vespers on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, marking the end of the Week of Prayer at the church that is the final resting place of the Apostle in Rome. The Armenian Church was represented by His Eminence Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Representative of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin to the Holy See and Pontifical Legate of Western Europe.