"Christmas Eve 1929: The Future Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, Torkom I, Visits Bari" by Carlo Coppola
"Vigilia di Natale del ’29: visita a Bari del futuro Patriarca armeno di Gerusalemme Torkom I"
pubblicato da Carlo Coppola su "In Città Giovinazzo" giornale diretto da Papas Antonio Calisi
On 24 December 1929, Christmas Eve, the community of Nor Arax in Bari welcomed a visitor of high rank destined to leave a lasting mark upon Apulian Armenian memory: His Eminence Archbishop Torkom Koushagian, then the European delegate of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, on a pastoral visit to the communities of the diaspora. Awaiting him was the poet Hrand Nazariantz, who guided Nor Arax both spiritually and culturally: the two men, as tradition relates, had likely known one another since their shared formation at the Berberian College of Constantinople, a crossroads of the Ottoman Armenian intelligentsia. The visit was warmly acclaimed by the press, in particular by the Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, which devoted extensive coverage to it over several days, from his arrival at the railway station to his departure.
Born in Bardizag in 1874 under the name Mgrdich, Koushagian had studied at the seminary of Armash, where he later taught Armenian and French, and was ordained priest on 25 September 1896. Elected spiritual head of Sebastia in 1907, he was consecrated bishop at the Holy See of Etchmiadzin on 19 September 1910 by Catholicos of All Armenians Matheos II. His visit to Bari thus came at the height of a long ministry, barely six months before the decisive turning point of his career: on 16 June 1930 Koushagian was elected ninety-second Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, succeeding the linguist and poet Yeghishe I Turian, brother of the dramatist and poet Bedros Turian. He took formal possession of the see only the following year.
His patriarchate (1930–1939) is remembered for two precise and well-documented legacies. On the cultural plane, he directed the patriarchal review Սիոն (Sion), an instrument of the intellectual and spiritual life of the Brotherhood of St. James, and produced philological works of note, among them a French translation of the Book of Lamentations by St. Gregory of Narek. On the administrative plane, he restored the Patriarchate's finances, which at his death on 10 February 1939 were not merely free of debt but extraordinarily in surplus — no small achievement for a see burdened, in those years, by the weight of receiving survivors of the Genocide.
The memory of that holy visit to Bari remains, in the history of Nor Arax, living testimony to the bond between the Apulian diaspora and the highest hierarchies of the Armenian Church, just as the visits to Bari of Archbishop Agagianian remain indelible — first as vice-rector of the Pontifical Armenian College of Rome, and later as Patriarch of the Armenian Catholics.
In these very days, nearly a century later, His Excellency the Most Reverend Theodoros Zakarian — from that same Patriarchate once headed by Torkom I — is in Bari, albeit on a personal pilgrimage. Archbishop Zakarian is responsible for the administration and safeguarding of the historical patrimony of the Armenian community of Jerusalem. On Sunday he was received by Papás Antonio Calisi, and on Monday, 29 June, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, by the Prior of the Dominican Community and Rector of the Pontifical Basilica of St. Nicholas in Bari.
Carlo Coppola
