Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
They were clustered around the entrance to the Syrian Catholic Church. We went in past the
enthusiastic band, with members of the group escorting people into the church, including
ourselves. We sat briefly, however, being a little uncomfortable about walking out during
the service we decided it was prudent to leave before the service began.
A little further down the alleyway we found ourselves at the Armenian 40 Martyrs Church.
The gate was unlocked and we entered a courtyard that went off to several small areas. Sit-
ting prominently in the courtyard was a memorial to the Armenian Genocide of 1915. It
was a link to the display previously seen at the Military Museum in Istanbul, along with
story from the Turk's perspective - there had been no genocide and the “Armenian Crim-
inal Gangs” had caused all the trouble. Not to be outdone, in Yerevan, the Armenian's have
a major museum dedicated to the Genocide, which forms an essential part of their national
psyche.
The church was empty. This was not what you would call the high point of the week in
terms of religious worship and I am sure they were open in the event that somebody such
as ourselves turned up.
As we worked our way around the church the evening service began. The only two people
in the church in addition to us were the priest and his assistance. Ignoring the numbers,
they went through the full service. When later discussing the sense of this, I took the view
that it was essential for the service to be conducted at the same time on the designated days
regardless of the numbers in the congregation. This consistency was important to the per-
petuation of the faith.
The icons and frescoes in the church were mindblowing and, as an aside, they must have
been worth a fortune.
The cult of the Forty Martyrs is widespread amongst the Orthodox churches of the East. It
refers to a group of Roman soldiers who, in the year 320, became martyrs as a consequence
of their Christian faith.
The forty soldiers who had openly confessed to being Christians were condemned to be
exposed naked upon a frozen pond on a bitterly cold night. At daybreak, the frozen bodies
were burned and the ashes cast into a river.
Stopping for a drink in a nearby square we watched a couple of young boys doing a bit of
pushing and shoving. They had some shoeshine equipment and it was obvious this is what
they did after school. Both of the boys, no more than ten or eleven years themselves, were
looking after young sisters and brothers as they went about their business.
