As part of the proceedings of the 120th Diocesan Assembly, Fr. Mesrop Parsamyan presented an address to the clergy and lay delegates, as one of the three candidates for the office of Primate. In his remarks, Fr. Parsamyan sketched out his background and upbringing, and revealed his early experience of God’s call, and some of his thoughts about the future.
Over seventeen centuries ago, in the heart of Armenia, a vision changed the course of our faith. St. Gregory saw a brilliant light descending from heaven, marking the very spot where the Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin would be built. This was no ordinary light; it was the light of Christ Himself, illuminating the path for a nation and its people.
St. Gregory called out to the Armenian people with a message that resonates with us today: “Come, let us build the Altar of Light, for it is here that the Light has dawned upon us.” …
Woburn, Massachusetts, where we held our 123rd Annual Diocesan Assembly last week, was once renowned for its shoemaking industry. We stayed at the Hilton in Woburn, and my hotel room was decorated throughout with reminders of that legacy, as you can see in the photo. Shelves filled with sewing machines, wooden shoe forms, and spools of thick thread. All the tools of the trade.
That room took me back to a cold winter in Armenia, back in the early 90s. Times were tough. We didn’t always have electricity. We didn’t have heat. We had to burn wood in old-fashioned stoves just to stay warm. And sometimes, when wood was hard to find, we’d burn books—volumes of Lenin, to be exact. But secretly, I would save the covers, made out of leather.
Fr. Alexander Madikian was a distinguished member of the Mekhitarist Congregation of Vienna with remarkable contributions to Armenian Studies, yet whose life was cut short prematurely. He was born Taniel Madikian on 18, 1886, in the village of Krman in the Khodorchur region of Western Armenia. At the age of fifteen, he went to study at the Mekhitarist School of Smyrna (Izmir), and a year later he left for Vienna with four schoolmates to continue his studies. In 1906, he became a member of the Mekhitarist Congregation and took the name Alexander. After completing his studies, he was ordained a celibate priest in 1910.
