Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1923-06-20
prepared by the National Geographic So
cietY. Washington. d CA


The name armenia" has been used
so often that it is perhaps taken by
many to be an actual state. But there
Is no such entity; the political unit,
Armenia, has not existed for nearly
1900 years.
Like Judea, Armenia fell long ago
under alien sway; and like the Jews,
though not so completely, the Armen-
ians were scattered among all nations.
Still, in spite of misfortune, the largest
group of Armenians has managed to
live on in their old home land, roughly
between the Black and Caspian seas on
the west and east, the Caucasus noun
tains on the north, and the headwaters
of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers on
the south and southwest. There. sur
rounded by people who have persecut-
ed and oppressed them; divided politi-
caIly-long among Turkey AMI Persia,
and more recently among those two
countries and Russia besides-they
have remained Armenians in blood,
culture and religion.
Retaining their racial characteristics
with such tenacity when the world at
times seemed arrayed against them. 1t
is little wonder that the Armenians
nave been called "the Jews of the
East" and that it has even been sug-
gested seriously that this people has
sprung from the stem lost tribes of Is
rael." Persecution seems to have whet-
ted the Armenian's intellect, and made
OF him natural trader. Whether in
Constantinople or Shanghai, London or
Buenos Aires, the Armenian completes
successfully with native son or with
Greek or Jew.
American interest in the Armenians
has always been heightened by the
fact that they are Christians-that
they make up an island Of Christen-
dom in the huge sea of Islam. Ar
menian Christians are different from
those with whom either the Professionals
or Roman Catholics of America are
familiar. 1t is from the Armenian
church, perhaps, that one may get the
best reminder that Christianity, like all
other world religions, came out of the
East; for this essentially oriental peo-
pie has preserved in it's Eastern home
many Of the customs and practices OF
the primitive Christian church.
Not Like Western Christians.
Christianity was adopted by the Ar
menians early in the Fourth century,
and their bishops were present at the
Councm of Nicea in 325. After the
Council Of Chalcedon in 451, however,
the Armenians broke away from the
more orthodox church to the west and
established an independence that has
been maintained, with only the brief
est breaks, until today. 1t has been
said that when the pagan Armenian
king Tiridates had been baptized and
had made Christianity the official reli-
gion, he ordered the pagan priests to
become priests of the new faith. This
they refused to do until assured that
the sacrifices of animals, which fur
nished meat for their families, would
be continued
For a while such sacrifices actually
were carried out in conjunction with
the spiritual sacrifice of the eucharist,
the animal victims being slaughtered
before a crucifix in the porch of the
church. Later this unison of the two
vastly different forms of sacrifice was
abandoned, but still animal sacrifices
were made at other times.
Armenian Christians differ less from
Christians of the Greek church than
from Western Christians, both Catho-
lie and Protestant. Politics and a
deep desire for independence, rather
than tenacious adherence to tenets of
| faith, have been the chief causes, prob
ably, of their failure to merge with
| the Greek or Russian church. The
principal points of faith which set the
Armenians apart from Western Chris
tians are their belief in the single ma
ture of Christ, their merging Of the
Christmas and baptismal feasts in
| January and their belief that Christ
| became divine only upon his baptism
In the Jordan.
After the capture of Constantinople
the Turks amde separate millets Of the
Armenian Christians, Greek Christians
and Jews, placing in the hands of a
| patriarch, selected by the sultan and
resident in Constantinople, both the
spiritual and political affairs of their
people, The Armenian patriarch had
representatives in every bishopric.
| Thus there was built up system of
mixed politics and religion.
Subject to Other Nations.
| When the ArmeEians were first
heard of about 1000 years before
Christ they we're distinct people. but
from that tine onward they were con-
] ,narefi raneatelilY by their stronger