Body of 20th century Armenian Patriarch Cardinal seen in extraordinary state
Marco Mancini, an Italian journalist with the ACI Stampa agency and an expert on the College of Cardinals of the Catholic Church, told CatholicVote that “although the bodies of personalities of the Eastern Church usually receive some form of embalming, it is clear that the state of the Cardinal’s body cannot be defined as anything less than exceptional, if not supernatural. And this has touched the thousands of Armenian faithful who saw his body in Lebanon today.”
He added, “in any case, his reputation for holiness has already been known in the Roman Curia, so much so that he has a solid beatification process open.”
Mancini is the author of a biography of 20th century cardinals entitled “Usque ad sanguinis effusionem: I Cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa da Pio X a Francesco.”
According to an unofficial English translation of an ACI Stampa report by Mancini, Cardinal Agagianian was born in 1895 in Akhaltsikhe, which is present-day Georgia. He was ordained a priest in 1917, and in 1937, the Armenian Synod elected him patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians. He became a cardinal in 1946, and less than twenty years later he participated in the conclave that elected Pope Paul VI, according to Mancini’s report. Cardinal Agagianian died in 1971.
According to a report from La Croix International, his body has been kept in St. Nicholas of Tolentino Armenian Church in Rome, and this week on September 12, his body was reverently transported to Beirut, Lebanon with a procession. ArmenianCatholic.org on Facebook live streamed the September 12 procession.
During the procession, the Cardinal’s body, which is enclosed with a clear covering on a lift carried by several men, appears to not have the usual signs of decomposition after death.
La Croix International reports that the diocesan stage of his cause for beatification and canonization began in October 2022.
