St Stephanus' bones may be of John the Baptist
Saturday, August 06, 2005 - ©2005 IranMania.com
LONDON, August 6 (IranMania) - The Armenian Orthodox primate of the diocese of Tehran, Archbishop Sebuh Sarkisian, said that some of the remains recently discovered in Iran's St Stephanus Church may be the bones of John the Baptist, according to MNA.
In late July, Shahriar Adl, the director of the team documenting three Iranian churches for registration on UNESCO's World Heritage List, said that they had discovered the bones of one of the successors of the Apostles of Jesus at the St. Stephanus Church, which is located near Marand in East Azarbaijan.
[...]
The bones have been examined by a team of anthropologists of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO).
Unfortunately, the bones have been damaged because of the bad condition of the place. Thus, the team could only determine that they are the bones of a single body but the individual bones can not be distinguished.
The experts have said that the complete skeleton belongs to a man with a strong physique who was about 50 years old when he died.
[...]
Hayk Ajimian, an Armenian scholar and historian, recorded that the church was originally built in the ninth century CE, but repeated earthquakes in Azarbaijan severely damaged the original structure. The church was renovated during the reign of the Safavid king Shah Abbas (1588-1629).
The general structure of the St. Stephanus Church mostly resembles Armenian and Georgian architecture and the inside of the building is adorned with beautiful paintings by Honatanian, a renowned Armenian artist.
The CHTO plans to submit an application to UNESCO to register the St. Stephanus Church as well as the St. Thaddeus and Zorzor churches in West Azarbajian on the World Heritage List.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
LONDON, August 6 (IranMania) - The Armenian Orthodox primate of the diocese of Tehran, Archbishop Sebuh Sarkisian, said that some of the remains recently discovered in Iran's St Stephanus Church may be the bones of John the Baptist, according to MNA.
In late July, Shahriar Adl, the director of the team documenting three Iranian churches for registration on UNESCO's World Heritage List, said that they had discovered the bones of one of the successors of the Apostles of Jesus at the St. Stephanus Church, which is located near Marand in East Azarbaijan.
[...]
The bones have been examined by a team of anthropologists of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO).
Unfortunately, the bones have been damaged because of the bad condition of the place. Thus, the team could only determine that they are the bones of a single body but the individual bones can not be distinguished.
The experts have said that the complete skeleton belongs to a man with a strong physique who was about 50 years old when he died.
[...]
Hayk Ajimian, an Armenian scholar and historian, recorded that the church was originally built in the ninth century CE, but repeated earthquakes in Azarbaijan severely damaged the original structure. The church was renovated during the reign of the Safavid king Shah Abbas (1588-1629).
The general structure of the St. Stephanus Church mostly resembles Armenian and Georgian architecture and the inside of the building is adorned with beautiful paintings by Honatanian, a renowned Armenian artist.
The CHTO plans to submit an application to UNESCO to register the St. Stephanus Church as well as the St. Thaddeus and Zorzor churches in West Azarbajian on the World Heritage List.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 7:07 AM
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