The Incorrupt Body of Cardinal Agagianian Has Been Translated to Beirut by Carlo Coppola
Կարդինալ Աղագեանեանի անկաշառ մարմինը փոխադրուեցաւ Պէյրութ: Կառլո Կոպպոլայի հոդված.
At the conclusion of the Synod of Bishops of the Armenian Catholic Church, yesterday afternoon, September 12, 2024, the translation of the mortal remains of Cardinal Krikor Bedros Aghagianian, fifteenth Patriarch of the Armenian Catholics and Servant of God of the Universal Church, took place.
The return of the cardinal's remains to Lebanon, where the Armenian Catholic Church is based, "will represent an opportunity to unite the Lebanese of all confessions, promoting national unity and interreligious dialogue", said the Patriarch, Raphaël Bedros XXI Minassian.
The body left the Pontifical Armenian College at dawn yesterday, September 12, 2024, and was accompanied to Rome Airport by a delegation of the Armenian Catholic Church in Italy led by the Rector of the Pontifical College, Father Khatchig Kouyoumjian and Father Mashdots Zahterian. On the plane that carried the Cardinal’s body to Beirut was His Beatitude Raphael Bedros XXI Catholicos Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenian Catholics who had arrived in Rome early in the morning aboard a Middle East Airlines plane flown by the Lebanese-Armenian pilot Hagop Nigolian and the co-pilot Harout Artinian. Between the current Patriarch of the Armenian Catholics and the Servant of God there was a very deep bond even in life, which allowed the then young Father Rafael to be close to the Cardinal in the last period of his life and also to witness some mystical phenomena that characterized his agony and his passage to Heaven. At Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport, the body was received by MP Jean Talozian, former Minister Richard Qyoumjian, the Commander of the Airport Security Service, Brigadier General Fadi Al-Kafouri, the Commander of the Airport Internal Security Forces Company, Brigadier General Izzat Al-Khatib, senior officials of the airport and a large crowd of bishops. Then some priests and archimandrites of the Armenian Catholic Church carried the venerated body of Cardinal Aghajanian to the “Presidential Hall” hall in the VIP building. Through the moving television images, broadcast in streaming by Chiariti Radio TV, we were able to recognize among others Father Hovsep Bezazian, current Apostolic Administrator of the Armenian Ordinariate of Greece, and friends Reverend Fathers Bedros Marashlian Haddad and Sahag Keshishian. Inside the airport station, a short event was held in honor of the Cardinal with an official welcome by the religious authorities. The Armenian clergy recited hymns and prayers in the hall decorated with flowers and important images of his life. At the end of this moment, the coffin in its transparent urn continued its journey to the Martyrs' Square in the Lebanese capital. Before the gaze of several thousand Lebanese belonging to the Armenian community and numerous civil and religious authorities, the Armenian Catholic Patriarch Raphaël Bedros XXI Minassian celebrated this "miracle of sanctity". The still preserved body of his predecessor and Cardinal Aghagianian (1895-1971), although without embalming, was shown to the applauding and festive crowd that threw rose petals as if at the passing of a Saint. Among the government and ecclesiastical authorities present in the front row were the interim Lebanese Prime Minister Nagib Mikati and the Maronite Patriarch, Card. Beshara Raï.
The transfer took place in response to an express request made by Card. Aghagianian himself when he was still alive. Born in Akhaltsikhe, now a municipality in the Governorate of Tbilisi, Georgia in 1895, he studied in Rome from a very young age at the Pontifical Armenian College, where he was later both vice-rector and rector. Over time, he found a place in the Roman Curia, without ever forgetting his Armenian origins and without ever being able to return to his native country, which in the meantime had become a Soviet Republic. Among his main intentions was the attempt to repair the atheistic doctrines of the darkest and most repressive moments of Soviet materialism. This probably cost him twice the failure to be elected to the Pontifical Throne. Alongside these aims, he devoted his entire life to the reunification of the Armenian Churches, bringing them back to the longed-for Unity.
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