Pope Awards High Church Honor To Armenian Mystic St. Gregory

POPE AWARDS HIGH CHURCH HONOR TO ARMENIAN MYSTIC ST. GREGORY

Associated Press International
February 23, 2015 Monday 11:34 AM GMT

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press
VATICAN CITY

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis has given a gift of sorts to Armenian
Catholics commemorating the 100th anniversary of the massacre of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks, declaring a revered 10th-century mystic
and poet, St. Gregory of Narek, a doctor of the church.

The Vatican said Monday that Francis had agreed to bestow one of
the highest church honors on Gregory after the decision was taken by
the Vatican’s saint-making office. The designation, however, clearly
reflects a desire of Francis, who as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio
was particularly close to the Armenian community in Buenos Aires.

The title of doctor of the church is reserved for people whose writings
have greatly served the universal church. Only 35 people have been
given the title, including St. Augustine, St. Francis de Sales and
St. Teresa of Avila.

Gregory, who lived around 950 to 1005, is considered one of the
most important figures of medieval Armenian religious thought and
literature. His Book of Prayers, also called the Book of Lamentations,
is his best-known work, a mystical poem in 95 sections about “speaking
with God from the depths of the heart.”

The designation comes a few weeks before Francis celebrates a Mass
in St. Peter’s Basilica to commemorate the centenary of the start of
the Armenian massacre.

Several European countries recognize the massacres as a genocide;
Turkey, however, denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying
the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of
civil war and unrest.

Francis provoked Turkish anxiety when in June 2013 he told a visiting
delegation of Armenian Christians that the massacre was “the first
genocide of the 20th century.”

The Vatican spokesman subsequently said the remarks were in no way a
formal or public declaration and therefore didn’t constitute a public
assertion by the pope that genocide took place.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress