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1,700-year-old ritual encounters modern age

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  • 1,700-year-old ritual encounters modern age

    Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX
    Nov 22 2008


    1,700-year-old ritual encounters modern age
    By LOUIS SAHAGUN
    Los Angeles Times


    Every seven years since A.D. 301, priests have trekked to the ancient
    Cathedral of Etchmiadzin in Armenia to retrieve freshly brewed muron `
    a sweet-scented holy oil stirred with what is said to be the tip of
    the lance driven through Jesus' side ` and carry it back to their
    respective dioceses.

    Prepared in a massive silver caldron, the mixture of herbs, flower
    extracts, spices, wine and pure olive oil is derived from an original
    batch mixed at the Armenian Church's founding 1,707 years ago. It is
    replenished every seven years by pouring old into new.The priests have
    traditionally traveled home with their portions in jars cradled in
    their arms; muron is supposed to be handled only by ordained clergy.

    But in late September ancient tradition met with a 21st-century
    obstacle: As a liquid, muron cannot be taken aboard commercial
    airliners, under airport security rules.

    "We were very worried ' in the old days, we carried the muron in our
    hands," said His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, primate of the
    Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America, which is
    based in Burbank, Calif. "I would never have given away that
    privilege, but we had no option."

    Derderian bundled his six containers in layers of cloth and then
    packed them snugly into three suitcases. Baggage handlers took it from
    there.

    "I was confident that nothing would happen to it," he said. "You do
    your best, and then trust in God."

    Derderian's containers arrived safely after a 20-hour flight.

    A genial man with a black beard, Derderian declared mission
    accomplished Oct. 7 when priests from churches across Southern
    California gathered around a massive oak table in his office.

    Their 7-ounce portions of the amber-hued oil were presented on a
    silver tray: 15 small glass jars with white screw-cap lids, each
    marked with a label written in English and Armenian: "Holy
    Muron. September 28, 2008. Holy Etchmiadzin."

    After prayers and solemn hymns, the clergy, clad in black robes, stood
    and formed a line. Fist-size silver crosses, some studded with
    precious stones, dangled from silver chains around their necks. They
    approached the table, in turn, with heads bowed and kissed the jars
    that Derderian placed in their hands.

    A few minutes later, they were heading back to their churches, where
    the oil would be transferred into dove-shaped sterling silver
    containers symbolizing the Holy Spirit.

    Over the next seven years, the muron will be used ' a few drops at a
    time ' primarily for christenings in Armenian churches the world over.

    "Armenians everywhere are bound by muron," said Zaven Arzoumanian, a
    theologian with the Western Diocese. "It receives special powers from
    relics used in its preparation. The gifts of the Holy Spirit come from
    it in church ceremonies.

    "That is why," he added with a smile, "our people have always said,
    'My child must be muronized.'?"

    Muron's origins date to the founding of the Armenian Church in the
    early fourth century by St. Gregory the Illuminator, patron saint of
    Armenians. He established the Cathedral of Etchmiadzin.

    St. Gregory is said to have blended the first muron there as a
    unifying religious symbol of forgiveness and peace, and as a medicine
    for healing.

    Over the centuries, church leaders say, muron helped sustain a people
    decimated and dispersed by war, conquest and genocide.

    This muron season, more than 70,000 people braved drenching rains to
    watch His Holiness Karekin II, supreme patriarch and catholicos of
    Armenians worldwide, lead a procession from the Cathedral of
    Etchmiadzin to an outdoor altar where the mixture had been
    steam-heated for 40 days and nights.

    The ceremony culminated with a pitcher of fresh muron being combined
    with the old in a gigantic engraved silver caldron and stirred with an
    assortment of religious relics: a cross believed to contain a fragment
    of the wooden cross on which Jesus was crucified; a foot-long iron tip
    of the lance believed to have pierced Jesus' side, and a life-size
    gold-plated "Right Arm of St. Gregory the Illuminator" said to be
    embedded with a fragment taken from St. Gregory's grave.

    When clergy bring back muron to their home churches, its arrival
    process, as Arzoumanian described it, is "a beautiful tiding for our
    communities."

    The interplay between past and present continues when churches hold
    special ceremonies in which urns of water are anointed with a small
    drop of muron.

    Congregants are invited to scoop up samples to take home or to drink
    then and there.

    "It's important to be a part of the muron process," Derderian
    said. "It really takes you back in time."


    Armenians everywhere are bound by muron. ?.?.?. The gifts of
    the Holy Spirit come from it in church ceremonies."

    Zaven Arzoumanian
    theologian with the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America

    http://www.star-telegram.com/religion/story/1053 097.html
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