An Armenian Catholic archbishop is among the newest saints of the Catholic Church.
St. Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan had been arrested, beaten and imprisoned before he and 447 other Armenians were chained, stripped naked, marched into the desert and killed in the Armenian genocide of 1915, according to a biography of the saint on the website of the Holy See.
“Imagine witnessing over 400 of your own parishioners being killed before your very eyes, and then being asked for the third time, ‘Now, are you ready to reject Christ?’ ” said the Rev. Haig Chahinian, an Armenian Catholic priest in Toronto and chief executive officer of Salt + Light Media.
Father Chahinian, who attended the canonization ceremony at the Vatican on 19 October, said the archbishop “responded with unshakable faith, saying: ‘Hurry and put me to death, so that I may rejoin my King of Kings and my flock in the Lord’s eternal paradise.’ ”
St. Ignatius, one of seven to be canonized that day, was 46 years old when martyred.
“I pray that we all may find the same conviction, courage and hope in Christ that Archbishop Maloyan bore to his final breath,” Father Chahinian said.
In his homily for the canonization Mass, Pope Leo XIV called St. Ignatius one of the “faithful friends of Christ.”
Speaking on 20 October to pilgrims who had come to Rome for the canonizations, Pope Leo said St. Ignatius was “a pastor after Christ’s own heart, and in times of heavy difficulties, he did not abandon his flock, rather he encouraged them in order to strengthen their faith.” He said the saint’s martyrdom “makes me think fondly of the Armenian people, who carve the cross into stones as a sign of their firm and rock-solid faith.”
At the time of the archbishop’s beatification in 2001, Pope John Paul II said the archbishop’s life was a reminder of the spiritual combat Christians experience, when “faith is exposed to the attacks of evil.
“It is in the Eucharist that he drew, day by day, the force necessary to accomplish his priestly ministry with generosity and passion, dedicating himself to preaching, to a pastoral life connected with the celebration of the sacraments and to the service of the neediest.
“Throughout his existence, he fully lived the words of St. Paul: ‘God has not given us a spirit of fear but a spirit of courage, of love and self-control.’ ”
Armenian Catholic Patriarch Raphaël Bedros XXI Minassian concelebrated the Mass after the canonization and celebrated a liturgy of thanksgiving the next day in St. Peter’s Basilica. He emphasized the importance of St. Ignatius Maloyan for all Christians.
“Yes, this is a celebration for the entire universal church,” the patriarch said. “Yes, St. Maloyan’s martyrdom is a testimony of hope. Yes, this canonization is a light in a dark page of human history.
“But at the heart of this celebration, at the heart of this occasion is, above all, a courageous and wholehearted act of love for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And that must be the very reason we rise each and every single day.”
CNEWA’s Thomas Varghese, director of programs, said he was moved by the number of faithful who filled St. Peter’s Square and the Via della Conciliazione, and the moment when Pope Leo recited the solemn formula in Latin, declaring the blesseds to be saints.
“So much effort had gone into the day’s making — the singing, the seating, the distribution of the Eucharist,” he said. “More than 100 priests assisted and people from all walks of life from multiple countries.”