FEAST OF HOLY ETCHMIADZIN

The feast of Holy Etchmiadzin commemorates the establishment of the Armenian Church and the eradication of paganism. The cathedral of Etchmiadzin was built by St. Gregory the Illuminator after his deliverance from the pit, to the specifications he saw in a vision and on the place marked by the Lord with a golden hammer.

The original building was completed in 303 AD. Etchmiadzin is the oldest example of a four-altar, four-pillar, domed, cruciform church in Christian architecture. It is the oldest surviving Armenian Christian site. Relief sculptures on the exterior walls are some of the oldest examples of the Christian Armenian art of sculpting.

Etchmiadzin is Armenian for “the descent (ichnel) of the only begotten (miadzin).” It is so named because of its origins in the miraculous vision of St. Gregory the Illuminator.