Lviv Armenian church celebrates 25 years of its revival
On November 11th an exhibition dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the revival of the Armenian church community in independent Ukraine opened in Lviv Museum of the History of Religion.
The exhibition presents photos of the first public service at the closed doors of the Armenian cathedral in 1991 in Lviv, of the surprising visit of Pope John Paul II to the cathedral. Priestly and episcopal vestments of the Armenian archbishop in Ukraine Markos Hovhannisyan, objects that are used during the sacraments of the Eucharist and wedding are also presented.
A unique exhibit is a wooden beam with an inscription in Armenian dialect, which was spoken only by Lviv Armenian community. Currently, this dialect is almost lost. It is interesting to note that in Lviv the first Armenian publishing house in Ukraine was open and it printed books on this unique Lviv Armenian dialect.
“The exhibits show a much wider period of the Armenian Church in Lviv. For example, there are Armenian manuscripts and printed books of XVII-XIX centuries. A separate stand is dedicated to the Armenian Genocide of 1915”, explains the curator Anastasia Kamaldinova. She adds that Armenian communities from Kyiv and Dnipro also gave their showpieces.
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic metropolitan of Lviv Ihor (Wozniak), the head of Ukrainian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church Markos Hovhannisyan, and the rector of the Lviv community at Tadeos Gevorkyan opened the exhibition.
A known Lviv researcher of the Armenian culture Iryna Hayuk noted that Lviv has a long history of the Armenian community, and in Lviv for the first time in Europe in 1932 an exhibition of Armenian culture was held. This exhibition later became the museum. “Of course, this cultural center did not survive during Soviet times. Its exhibits are now in various museums of the city and in private collections. Therefore, this exhibition is important not only because of our representation of the Armenian community in Ukraine since independence, but much more valuable is the emphasis on the Armenian historiography in Lviv. We talk not only about one of the oldest communities of the city, but also about their contribution in the sphere of trade, diplomacy, jewelry crafts", she said.
The exhibition will be open till December 15.
