News

Iran seeks to register Armenian Vank Cathedral as UNESCO World Heritage site

Having registered three churches in the World Heritage List, Iran is trying to add other Armenian cathedrals like Isfahan’s “Vank” to this list, IFP News reported. Deputy Head of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHTO), Mohammad Hossein Talebian, said that there is a list of Armenian churches, three of which inscribed in UNESCO World Heritage list.

Vietnam Church opens up to domestic migrants

Pope’s World Day of Peace’ message for 2018 is coming into effect in a southern Archdiocese of Vietnam.

Some 500 migrant workers and students attended the launch of Migration Week on Jan. 7 at Don Bosco Youth Center in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.  Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Do Manh Hung of Ho Chi Minh City, the  head of the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, said the local church has a duty to receive, protect and integrate migrants into the local church and improve their lives.

In Memoriam: Schema-Archimandrite Placide (Deseille)

The author of this memoir, Archimandrite Vasily (secular name: Pierre Marie Daniel Pasquiet), was born to a pious Catholic family in the town of Cholet in Maine-et-Loire, France, in 1958. After school he studied biology and agriculture at a college and worked on a farm. After reading some books on the Russian Orthodox theology the young man was tonsured a monk with the name “Vasile” in 1980 and in the same year joined the Greek Catholic Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Jerusalem. In the 1980s as a monk of the same monastery he continued his studies and developed a keen interest in the Russian Orthodox spirituality. In 1993 he moved to the Russian Gornensky Convent in Jerusalem and soon was received into Orthodoxy by Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow and All Russia. By Divine providence Fr. Vasily ended up in Russia where he visited many holy sites, met with the Elder Nicholas Guryanov and decided to stay in this country forever. Since 1994, with the blessing of Patriarch Alexei II, Fr. Vasily has served in the Chuvash Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church [corresponding to the constituent Chuvash Republic of central Russia, in the middle Volga valley]. After his ordination in 1995 Fr. Vasily served in different localities of the Chuvash Republic: in the parish church of the Nikulino village, then at the Holy Trinity Monastery in the town of Alatyr and at the Church of the Iveron icon in the same town, etc. Thanks to the preaching and many other activities of Fr. Vasily, the spiritual and cultural life of parts of the Chuvash Republic was largely revived. Since December 2009, Fr. Vasily has been the Abbot of the Holy Trinity Monastery in Cheboksary (the capital city of the Chuvash Republic) and the chairman of the local Diocesan Commission for the Canonization of Saints.

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On January 7, 2018, the feast of the glorious and radiant Nativity of Christ, Schema-Archimandrite Placide (Deseille)—a famous French ascetic and Orthodox theologian, founder of two Orthodox monastic communities in France—reposed in the Lord. The Pravoslavie.ru website asked Archimandrite Vasily (Pasquiet) to share his memories of the newly-departed ascetic, since he had met with Fr. Placide on many occasions, and it was under his (Fr. Placide’s) influence that he once converted from Catholicism to Orthodoxy.

O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, give rest to Thy servant Schema-Archimandrite Placide in Thy Kingdom!

Ordained Deaconess of Armenian Orthodox Church in Tehran

As an update to my previous post, without much fanfare, Ani-Kristi Manvelian (24-year-old anesthesiologist) was ordained a deaconess, on September 25, 2017, in Tehran’s St. Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral by Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian, the Primate of the Diocese of Tehran. The photos show Deaconess Ani-Kristi serving on the altar during the Christmas Eve (Ճրագալոյց) Divine Liturgy on January 5th.

Feast day of the Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem

The 5th of January was the Eve of the Feast day of the Armenian Patriarchate. Vespers began at 14.30. Celebration of Saints David, the prophet and king, and James the Apostle, Brother of the Lord,  was held on 6th of January during the Patriarchal Divine Liturgy.

Morning prayers started from 7.00 AM at the St. James Cathedral.

Vatican News community exceeds 4 million users on social media

A community that exceeds 4 million users on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. This is the latest result of the reorganization of the social media channels of the Vatican Secretariat for Communication, unified under the recently presented Vatican News logo.

The launch of a Global Page on Facebook, in particular, brought together over 3 million followers, who can now consult the pages of the six languages ​​currently available (English, Italian, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese).