14 July Antelias. His Holiness Aram I received the Finnish historian Svante Lundgren and the film producer Manvel Saribekian, two key persons involved in the making of the documentary film on the Armenian Genocide, at his office in St Mary’s Monastery.
Mr Saribekian produced and Mr Lundgren narrates “Map of Salvation,” which dramatises the journey of five missionary women, Maria Jakobsen (Denmark), Karen Eppe (Denmark), Bodil Bjorn (Norway), Alma Johansson (Sweden), and Hedwig Bul (Estonia), who witnessed the massacres of the Armenians, met the survivors of the atrocities, and assisted them unconditionally.
His Holiness praised the documentary and acknowledged the selfless giving of the missionaries who came to the Armenian lands to save the lives of the orphans and survivors. He then informed the guests that on the occasion of its 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Catholicosate of Cilicia established the Armenian Genocide Orphans “Aram Bezikian” Museum. The aim of the project is both to honor the memory of the courageous missionaries who gave up their comfortable lives and accompanied the orphans and to pay tribute to the orphans the surviving generation.
