The Holy Cross of Varak: The Armenian Church's Own Feast of the Cross

Two weeks after Khachverats, on September 27 this year, the Armenian Church keeps a feast that belongs to Armenians alone: Varaga Surb Khach (Վարագայ Սուրբ Խաչ), the Holy Cross of Varak. No other church observes it.

A feast that is only ours

Of the four Armenian feasts of the cross, three are shared with the wider Christian world. This one is not. It grew from an event on Armenian soil, and the church keeps it with the same weight as the rest — a rare thing, a major feast that no one else marks.

A relic on Mount Varak

Tradition holds that Saint Hripsime carried a small relic of the True Cross. She was one of the virgin martyrs whose deaths are bound up with Armenia's conversion to Christianity. Fleeing persecution, she and her companions stopped on Mount Varak, above the southern shore of Lake Van, and left the relic hidden in the care of the monks living there before going on to Vagharshapat, where she was martyred. The relic then lay hidden for centuries.

The light that shone for twelve days

In the year 653, according to tradition, a hermit named Totig — also written Todik — saw a vision above the mountain: a brilliant light that led him to the hidden cross. Accounts say the light shone for twelve days. The Catholicos Nerses the Builder set the feast to remember it. A monastery, Varagavank, later rose on the mountain and guarded the relic for generations.

Van, and what it carries

Varagavank stood above Van until 1915, when it was destroyed during the genocide. The relic itself had been carried to safety long before, and is kept today at Etchmiadzin. For families whose roots reach back to Van, this feast holds that memory too — a cross kept safe through loss, and carried forward.

The cross at home

That is what the Cross of Varak is, in the end: a sign held onto and passed down. Armenians still keep it in the home — the khachkar in the Prayer & Faith collection, the sacred-scene wall hangings, and the woven cross blankets that keep the sign where the family lives.

Keeping the day

However you mark September 27, the Holy Cross of Varak is a quiet reminder that what matters can be hidden, lost, and found again. That is a feast worth keeping.