Today, as we entered St. Giragos Armenian Church in Diyarbakir, I was struck by the vastness of its sanctuary. It is considered the largest Armenian church in the Middle East. Our guide told us that in the early 1880s, a fire swept through the sanctuary and left it in ruins. After losing so much, the community had every reason to rebuild something smaller. A modest chapel would have been understandable. They chose otherwise, and by 1883, St. Giragos had risen again—larger tha

Yesterday I had the immense honor and blessing of celebrating Badarak at the Armenian Monastery of the Holy Cross on Akhtamar Island, surrounded by the blue waters of Lake Van. There, faith, history, and place came together in a way words cannot fully express. For more than 1,100 years, countless Badaraks have been celebrated within those sacred walls. Generations of priests have stood before that altar, and generations of faithful have offered their prayers there. We offere

Our boat cut across Lake Van this morning, headed for Akhtamar Island and the Monastery of the Holy Cross. Somewhere in the middle of that crossing, with water on every side, I found myself praying words written by a man who knew this lake far better than I ever will: St. Gregory of Narek. St. Gregory lived his whole life at the monastery of Narekavank, on the southern shore of this same lake. He watched it for years — calm some days, violent on others. Slowly, the lake becam