Armenian Apostolic Holy Church The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin

By the merciful will of the Lord, together, we have offered prayers and have now completed the sacred ceremony of the reconsecration of this Mother Cathedral, founded by Christ. At the conclusion of the Cathedral’s major renovation, we render glory and thanksgiving to Almighty God, by whose grace, the Mother Cathedral, now fortified, beautified and anointed with the new Holy Myron, opens its doors once more to our faithful sons and daughters in Armenia, and the Diaspora, and to pilgrims, and visiting guests. At this solemn moment, the words spoken by the Almighty to the great prophet, the divine witness Moses, resound in our hearts: "The place whereon thou standest is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5). Through the blessings of the Most High, our homeland is sacred—a land where, after the Flood, God accepted the first offering of the patriarch Noah under the shadow of Ararat and established His covenant with mankind, saying, "I will not again curse the ground because of mankind." (Genesis 8:21). Holy is this land of Ararat, where the valiant forefather of the Armenians, Hayk, cherishing freedom, triumphed over the tyrant Bel and vanquished the forces of evil. Holy is this place, where, through the vision of our Patriarch, equal to apostles, Saint Gregory the Illuminator, the Only-Begotten Son of God descended from heaven, and, shedding radiant light upon this sacred site, established the spiritual center of all Armenians—this Holy of Holies, this Mother Cathedral․ Indeed, Holy Etchmiadzin is the priceless gift of our Lord Jesus Christ to our nation, the inexhaustible font of God's blessings for our faithful people dispersed throughout the world.