Holy Cross Discovery day

The Armenian Apostolic church will celebrate the day of discovery of the Holy Cross on October 24. And today is the Commemoration day of the Twelve Archimandrites – Sts. Retheos, Dionisios, Selbestros, Athanas, Cyril of Jerusalem, Ephrem Khourie Assyrian, Vasil (Barsegh) of Caesaria, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory the Theoloegian, Epiphan of Cyprus, John Chrysostom and Cyril.

The Feast of the Discovery of the Holy Cross is one of the four feasts dedicated to Christ’s Holy Christ, the information service of the Ararat Diocese informs. In 327 AD Heghineh, the Mother of the Byzantine King Kostandianos, visits Jerusalem with the aim to search the holy Cross of the lord. A Jew, named Judas, helps the King’s mother to search the site where Christ was crucified – Golgotha. In the result of searches the wooden crosses of Christ and the two criminals crucified together with him are found. For recognizing the Lord’s Cross, the remains of a young man are put on the crosses in turn. On one of the crosses the young man rises to life and thus the Lord’s Cross is identified. After that miracle the Jew converts to Christianity and later becomes the Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem. After the discovery of the Holy Cross Heghineh renovates the Holy Places of Jerusalem and builds the Church of Holy Resurrection of Golgotha, where later the Lord’s cross is installed.

Those Archimandrites (Holy Doctors) or Church Fathers (Hierotheus of Athens, Dionysius of Areopagite, Silverst of Rome, Athanasius of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem, Ephraem the Syrian, Barsegh (Vasil) of Caesaria, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory the Theologian, Epiphanius of Cyprus, John Chrysostom and Cyril of Alexandria) have been famous for leading a pious and devote life and are considered to be the Fathers of the Universal Church, respectable interpreters of the Holy Bible and orthodox maintainers of the Christian Faith.

The main goal of the twelve Church Fathers’ activity was maintenance and passing to the coming generations the orthodox faith Heresies and sects and their followers have existed since the existence of Christianity. They have falsely comprehended and interpreted the Word of God, have set forth and developed false and misleading teachings related to the fundamental principles of Christianity. In contrast to them, the twelve Church Fathers, comprehending the divine revelation in the whole, have provided the true interpretation of the doctrinal key points and principles and have developed ecclesiastical theology.

The Armenian Apostolic church highlights that the role of the twelve Church Fathers is at present especially important for our society, where various false interpreters of the Holy Bible have intruded.