In the early hours of Saturday, April 2nd, 2022, on the feast of the St. Gregory the Illuminator’s descent into the pit (Khor Virab) and the eve of the Antelias Pilgrimage Day, pilgrims and Armenian Theological Seminary students marched from St. Mary Monastery in Bikfaya to St. Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral in Antelias, where they participated in the Divine Liturgy conducted at the Cathedral.
Following the service, sacred relics, kept at the Cilicia Museum, were taken out by His Holiness Aram I and placed in a reliquary coffer to be revealed to the faithful on Sunday during the Divine Liturgy.
And in the evening, at the end of the Vespers dedicated to the feast of the saint, His Holiness Catholicos Aram I delivered his pontifical address where he stressed the spiritual rebirth and revolution brought to Armenia by the saint. The Catholicos stated that the apostles Sts. Thaddeus and Bartholomew had brought the Light of the Christ to the Armenian people, but it was not yet present in their everyday lives. St. Gregory the Illuminator became the apostle of faith who, through his strong faith and willpower, endured the passion he was subjected to and bestowed upon them the Light.
It is noteworthy to mention that on the eve of the Catholicosate’s Pilgrimage Day many faithful spend the night in the Cathedral in a prayerful atmosphere.
