Welcome to another installment of this series “Holy Muiron: From Armenia to your Home” celebrating the upcoming Blessing of the Muiron at Holy Etchmiadzin. If you’ve missed previous sessions of this series, you’ll find them on Spotify, your favorite podcatcher, or better yet, visit us at Epostle.net – where you can also sign up to receive the Daily Message directly in your inbox . Here, then, is today’s episode. Thank you for listening. May God bless you.

Armodoxy for Today… Muiron Prep: The Players

Now that we’re familiar with the uses and purpose of the Holy Muiron, our next step in our deep dive of the subject is the preparations. Today we look at the different players.

From what we know, the first official blessing of Holy Muiron was done by St. Gregory the Illuminator following the conversion of Armenia in 301 A.D. Accordingly, the chief bishop of the Armenian Church, whom we refer to as Catholicos, conducts the blessing every seven years. The current Catholicos is the 132nd Catholicos in this tradition and 142 Chief bishops since the Apostolic throne was created by Saints Thaddeus and Bartholomew following Jesus’ Resurrection and their travel to Armenia with the Gospel.

The number seven is a mystical number within the Armenian Church. The seventh letter of the Armenian alphabet is the letter “eh” which is the verb “to be” in its present tense. It is the name of God, that is, “He is.”  The number seven also is the sum of the numbers 3+4. Three refers to the heavens, in particular the Holy Trinity and four refers to the earth, with its four directions: North, East, West and South. Four plus three equals the completeness of Creation, heaven and earth.  An even deeper Armodox dive will note that the year of Armenia’s conversion to Christianity, 301, has the prime factors of 43 and 7.  The four, three and seven may be discounted as coincidence in the date but we are content assigning it to the mystery of the Muiron, as we will discuss on a yet another exploration.

Among his duties, the Catholicos, as chief bishop, is responsible for blessing the Muiron and consecrating bishops for dioceses – these are geographical regions that have cathedrals, churches, and parishes in them. Once all the dioceses of the Armenian Church were confined to the geographical boundaries of Armenia, but since the failed Genocide of 1915 and the creation of the Armenian diaspora, dioceses are found throughout the world.

On the occasion of the blessing of Holy Muiron, the Catholicos, in his capacity of the head of the Church, invites all the bishops, representing the various communities throughout the world, to come to Holy Etchmiadzin to participate and witness in this blessings. Following the Muiron blessing, the Muiron is distributed to each of the bishops who return to their diocese and distribute the blessed chrism to the priests serving under him.

Get your scorecards ready as we explore the mechanics of the blessing in the next few days. Today we conclude with a prayer from the Divine Liturgy: Lord, through the passion of your holy Only-begotten all creation has been renewed and humans have again been made immortal. Heavenly king, preserve your Church unshaken and keep in peace those who worship your name. Amen.