Pope blesses statue of St. Gregory in niche of St. Peter's Basilica

Published: 2005-01-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With the Armenian Catholic patriarch and a representative of the Armenian Apostolic Church standing by, Pope John Paul II blessed a statue of St. Gregory the Illuminator placed in an exterior niche on the north side of St. Peter's Basilica. The statue of Armenia's patron was the eighth statue of a saint to find a place at St. Peter's since 1999, when the Vatican authorized the placement of statues in the exterior niches. The statue of St. Gregory was unveiled Jan. 19 during a brief ceremony presided over by Pope John Paul, Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni and three other Armenian Catholic bishops, and Orthodox Archbishop Mesrop Krikorian, representing the Orthodox patriarch of Etchmiadzin, Armenia. The pope blessed the work, which depicts a bearded and mitered St. Gregory holding a bronze cross in one hand and a book of the Gospels in the other. Armenian Catholics and Orthodox venerate St. Gregory as a model of steadfast faith in the midst of trial, because he survived imprisonment and torture before he succeeded in converting King Tiridates in 301.

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