Pagan Temple of Garni

97% of Armenians follow Christianity which has existed in Armenia for over 1,700 years. Armenia has it's own church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, which most Armenians follow. Christianity has a strong influence in the country, but there is a small presence of other religions.

Pagan Temple of Garni

Garni temple

Twenty-six kilometers east of the capital city of Yerevan stands the reconstructed pagan temple of Garni. The area around Garni has been settled since Neolithic times and archaeologists have found Urartian inscriptions dating back to the 8th century BC. Dedicated to Helios, the Roman god of the sun, the Garni temple was built by the Armenian King Trdates I in the 1st century AD (with funding from the Roman Emperor Nero in exchange for military support against the Parthian empire). After Christianity was adopted in Armenia in the early 4th century, most pagan monuments were destroyed or abandoned. Garni, however, was preserved at the request of the sister of King Trdates II and used as a summer residence for Armenian royalty. In 1679 an earthquake completely destroyed the temple and it lay in ruins until its reconstruction between 1965 and 1975.

                                                     

Church of the Virgin Mary, Geghard Monastery

Thirty kilometers to the east of Yerevan, and nine kilometers beyond the temple of Garni, Geghard monastery is perched above the canyon of the Azat River. Centuries before the arrival of Christianity, hermits had retreated from the world and taken refuge in the region’s naturally occurring caves. According to tradition, St. Gregory the Illuminator converted these hermits and founded the first monastery in the early 4th century. No buildings have survived from these times and the oldest existing structure is the Church of the Virgin Mary, called Astvatsatsin, constructed in 1215 by the Zakarian family. In former times, the monastery has been known as ‘the monastery of the seven churches’, the ‘monastery of the forty altars’ and Ayrivank, ‘the monastery of the caves’. Each of these names gives an indication of the sizeable monastic community that had developed as more hermits’ dwellings were carved into the soft stone of the Azat canyon. The current name of the monastery, Gheghardavank, means the ‘Monastery of the Holy Lance’ and refers to one of the spears said to have pierced the body of Christ. This spear was once kept at Geghard but is now housed in the treasury of Etchmiadzin (another spear, the Spear of Longinus is kept at the Weltliche Schatzkammer of the Hofburg in Vienna, Austria). Adjacent to the Church of the Virgin Mary is a rock-hewn church with a natural spring that was known to be a holy place since long before the construction of the Geghard complex; its waters are believed to keep the skin youthful.

Wow the pictures Zach sent were pretty neat. I would love to go and see it in person. They went into an old Armenian Church that is still in use. While they were at the church there was a baby being baptized.

Zach also told us one of their investigators accepted the invitation to be baptized.