He was a man of holiness and generosity; but also a man who could countenance the cruelest violence. His very name confessed his loyalty to God—but also prefigured the loneliness that can follow any man with such loyalties. He was Elijah the Tishbite, Elijah “the Stranger”:
Each year on May 28, Armenians around the world honor the anniversary of the Battle of Sardarabad and the establishment of the First Armenian Republic (1918-1920). This week marks 108 years since those fateful events.
In the Armenian Church, memorial days of one kind or another are quite common: we observe merelots after the major feast days; we remember our departed loved ones on the karasoonk of their passing, and thereafter through annual hokehankisd services.
On May 14 this year, the Armenian Church will celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The day marks the ascent of our Lord into heaven, on the 40th day after his resurrection.
“Mothers are the ambassadors of God’s love and providence on earth,” wrote the saintly Patriarch Shnork Kaloustian in this classic Mother’s Day homily.
