A friend of mine recently visited Armenia, and very kindly agreed to share with us some of the pictures which he took at various churches and other religious sites; we will be publishing more of these over the next couple of weeks. This set were taken at a monastery located about 19 miles to the east of the capital, Yerevan, which is traditionally said to have been founded by St Gregory the Illuminator, who evangelized Armenia at the very beginning of the 4th century. It was formally known as “Ayrivank – the monastery of the cave”, but is now called “Geghardvank – the monastery of the Spear” (often shortened to just Geghard), because of the tradition that St Jude Thaddeus brought the point of the spear which pierced Our Lord’s side to Armenia, and it was kept at this monastery. The relic is now at the Etchmiatsin cathedral, the Vatican of the Armenian Apostolic Church, of which we will show some pictures later.
