On the final morning of his Turkish leg, Pope Leo XIV met Armenian Patriarch Sahak II Mashalian at the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral in Istanbul. In a heartfelt address, the pontiff thanked God for “the courageous Christian witness of the Armenian people throughout history, often amid tragic circumstances,” and highlighted the deepening bond between the Catholic Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church ¹. The visit, part of a day of prayer, dialogue and reflection, capped the pope’s first international apostolic journey, which continues on to Lebanon.
The cathedral, seat of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, serves as the spiritual and cultural hub for Turkey’s tiny Armenian minority—one of the country’s oldest Christian communities, with roots reaching back to the early centuries of Christianity. Their history includes both flourishing periods and the profound suffering of the 1915 deportations and killings, which Pope Francis described as genocide ¹.
Pope Leo XIV recalled key milestones in the ecumenical journey, noting that in 1967 Catholicos Khoren I became the first Oriental Orthodox primate to visit the Bishop of Rome, and three years later Catholicos Vasken I and Pope Paul VI signed a joint declaration urging Christians to “rediscover themselves as brothers and sisters in Christ” ¹. While the Constantinople patriarchate remains autonomous, it acknowledges the spiritual primacy of the Catholicos of All Armenians in Echmiadzin.
Marking the 1,700‑year anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, the pope emphasized the unifying power of the Nicene Creed: “We must draw from this shared apostolic faith to recover the unity that existed in the early centuries between the Church of Rome and the ancient Oriental Churches.” He added that full communion is “not absorption or domination, but an exchange of the gifts received by our Churches from the Holy Spirit” ¹.
In a special tribute, Pope Leo honored Armenian saints, especially the 12th‑century Catholicos and poet Nerses IV Shnorhali, saying, “May the example of Saint Nerses inspire us and his prayer strengthen us.” The encounter was a quiet but powerful affirmation of solidarity, underscoring the pope’s broader message of unity and hope for the Armenian community in Turkey and beyond.