«Մեր ունեցվածքը Սուրբ Երկրում» (վերջ) - պատմում է հայր Գևոնդ ՀՈՎՀԱՆՆԻՍՅԱՆ

The article by Fr. Ghevond Hovhannisyan, rector of the Church of St. Archangels in Jerusalem, is devoted to the concluding part of the account of the Armenian spiritual heritage in the Holy Land — the fate of the Armenian Apostolic Church's Jerusalem Patriarchate, its relations with the authorities and other Christian confessions, and the biography of His Beatitude Patriarch Torkom II (Manoogian).

The Patriarchate amid the Middle Eastern Conflict

The author describes how the region's political upheavals were reflected in the life of the Armenian Quarter and the Patriarchate:
• the miraculous survival of the Cathedral of Sts. James from artillery shelling during the war of 1948, attested to by representatives of various religions;
• the Patriarchate's dependence on the policies of influential states in the Holy Land, including present-day Israel;
• the 2001–2003 legal dispute over the "Parontēr" plot, where the construction of the separation wall threatened Armenian lands and olive groves, resolved in favor of the Patriarchate thanks to the diaspora's public support;
• the consequences of the 1999 flood in the Church of the Tomb of the Holy Mother of God in Gethsemane, caused by the municipal authorities' negligence in communal maintenance.

Interconfessional Relations

Special attention is given to the friendly ties of the Jerusalem Patriarchate of the Armenian Apostolic Church with other Churches: ecumenical prayers, contacts among seminarians, friendship with the Greek clergy, and especially with the Russian Spiritual Mission and Russian foundations (the Andrew the First-Called Foundation, "Pilar"), which contribute to strengthening ecclesiastical and popular ties.

The Myth of the Cracked Column

The central place in the article is occupied by a historical and textual analysis of the legend of the "cracked column" at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is disseminated in Orthodox circles as "proof" of the Armenians' "heresy":
• the Armenian version of the event is presented according to the "Travel Notes" of Simeon dpir Lehatsi (1619–1635), in which the miracle is connected with mercy shown to impoverished pilgrims;
• the later Greco-Russian version (the notes of Ioann Lukyanov, 1710–1711) is presented, which accuses the Armenians of bribing the authorities;
• chronological and substantive contradictions between the versions are demonstrated.

The author explains the origin of the myth through historical causes of the 16th–17th centuries: the striving of the Greek clergy to establish a monopoly right to the miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire before a multinational, predominantly Slavic congregation, and to suppress testimonies of the independent descent of the Fire among the Armenians during the years of separate celebration of Easter. The article also examines the modern distortion of the Armenian Patriarch's role in the ceremony (using the example of an interview with Patriarch Diodoros I), in which the participation of the Armenian side is presented as merely nominal, whereas in fact the Armenian archimandrite enters directly into the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre.

Biography of Patriarch Torkom II

The concluding part of the article is devoted to the life path of His Beatitude Patriarch Torkom II (Manoogian) — from his birth in a refugee camp in Iraq and his studies at the Jerusalem seminary to his ordination, his service as head of the Dioceses of the Western and Eastern United States, and his election as Patriarch.

The article's key conclusion is that the centuries-long presence of the Armenian Church in the Holy Land has been accompanied not only by spiritual feats and diplomatic defense of the Patriarchate's rights, but also by the necessity of resisting the deliberate distortion of historical truth aimed at diminishing the Armenians' role in the Christian holy places of Jerusalem.