On April 23, an Eucharist Liturgy was celebrated by Archbishop Lionginas Virbalas dedicated to the memory of the martyrs of the Armenian Genocide in Kaunas’ St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral, one of the biggest religuous centers of the Baltic region.
Archbishop Virbalas mentioned in his speech. ‘’Today we commemorate the 102nd anniversary of the first genocide of the 20th century, when more than 1.5 million Armenians and other Christians were annihilated. During the 20th century the mankind survived two more massive tragedies, the Nazism and the Stalinism’’. The Archbishop said that nowadays other Christians and religious minorities are being massacred on the territories where Armenians were martyred.
The Archbishop referred to the messages of Pope Francis made in 2016 during his historic visit to Armenia.
During the liturgy Tigran Mkrtchyan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to Lithuania delivered a speech, noting in particular that the recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide nowadays is seen as one of the main means of prevention of other genocides. He said. ‘’As long as denial of genocide continues, as long as there are attempts at equating victims with perpetrators, humanity will have to face the threat of the repetition of this crime of crimes- genocide’’.
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Citing the words of His Holiness Pope Benedict XV in 1915 on the attempt of the annihilation of Armenians, the Ambassador underlined the fact that 48 Orthodox Armenian Bishops and 4500 priests were murdered during the genocide, and in the aftermath of genocide more than 2200 Armenian churches were looted and destroyed. Thus, it was not only a crime against humanity, but a crime against civilization.
“102 years have passed since an attempt was made to wipe out Armenians from the face of earth, but we have continued to live, to create, to prosper, to defend our faith and homeland, our culture and our churches’’: Ambassador said.
Father Khosrov Stepanyan, representative of the Armenian Apostolic Church in the Baltic region, made a prayer. Armenian spiritual songs were performed during the liturgy.
A photo-exhibition of Armenian Medieval Churches was opened on the same day in the precincts of the Archdiocese, organised together with “Armenpress’’ news agency.
Around three dozen photographs of the churches of 8-15th centuries were displayed, which were made by “Armenpress” agency during its activities for over a century.
Reference. The construction date of the St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral Basilica, located in Kaunas, former capital and the second largest city, is unknown, but it is mentioned in written sources starting from the 15th century. It was built in Gothic style and it is the largest temple in Lithuania.