Echimiadzin is to the Armenian Church what the Vatican is to Catholicism
Yet I am not sure that will find a carving of Jesus Christ anywhere on St Peter’s Cathedral in the Vatican that has a Persian beard and crown.
On one of the occasions when the Persian army was cutting a swathe across Armenia and burning all evidence of Christianity, the Head of the Church ordered that the main carving of Jesus above the entrance to Echimiadzin be changed. A Persian beard and crown were fashioned from the rock and as the Persian army arrived they were persuaded that the building had been built for the greater glory of the Shah of Persia.
The building was left in one piece, though not quite as it was before.
Comments
Post a Comment