Armenian Christianity Preserves Eastern Memory of Church

Armenia was the first kingdom to adopt Christianity as its state religion. Its two-thousand-year-old religious, spiritual, and architectural heritage bears witness to the importance of keeping the Christian presence alive and rooted in the Caucasus. “The churches and monasteries of Nagorno-Karabakh must be respected and protected”, Pope Francis said after the Angelus on Sunday, 15 October, expressing his concern for the humanitarian situation of displaced persons. The Armenian enclave has been emptied of 100,000 of its inhabitants since Azerbaijan launched its military aggression a month ago, on 19 September.