Sourp Kevork in Limassol: The Feast of Saint George and a Name Day for Two Kevorks
Garo Kotchounian5 min readFiled under Լ, lyoun, in the alphabet index
In this article (8)
The Armenian Church keeps the feast of Saint Kevork, Saint George the General, on the last Saturday of September, which this year fell on 26 September. In our house the feast is a double name day, because my father is Kevork and so is my son. He carries his grandfather’s name, as an Armenian first son does, and as I carry my own grandfather’s.
We live in Nicosia, where the Armenian church is Sourp Asdvadzadzin, the Holy Mother of God. The church that bears the saint’s own name stands eighty kilometres to the south, in Limassol, and the next morning, Sunday 27 September, its parish celebrated his feast at the liturgy. So we drove south to be there.
Nicosia, first thing
I began outside Sourp Asdvadzadzin, the white cathedral of the Armenians of Nicosia, consecrated in 1981, and wished a happy name day to every Kevork, George and Roman. Those named Roman belong in that greeting, because on Saint Kevork’s day the Church also remembers Saint Adoktos and Saint Romanos the Hymnographer.
A church and a school, side by side
The Armenian church and school of Limassol share one address, 16 Vassilis Michaelides Street, in the centre of the town. They share a yard as well, and that is the pattern across the island: in Nicosia, in Larnaca and in Limassol, the three towns where the community has both a church and a school, the two stand side by side. Of the roughly 3,500 Armenians in Cyprus, about fifteen per cent live in Limassol, according to a 2016 government booklet on the community.
There has been an Armenian school in Limassol since 1928. Like the others on the island, it has been called Nareg since 1972, and its present building was inaugurated by President Demetris Christofias on 5 November 2008. It teaches in three languages, Armenian, Greek and English, and its name is written above the windows in all three.
The church is small, clad in pale stone, with a porch of white arches and a little white bell cupola above the door. It was built in 1939 and 1940 with the donations of the community, on land that Satenig Soultanian bought in memory of a relative named Kevork, and it was consecrated in 1948 by Bishop Ghevont Chebeyan. It has been much renovated since, which is why a building of 1940 looks so new.
Candles
We went in and lit our candles. They stand in a tray of sand in front of a small crucifix, and the box they are taken from carries a card in Armenian capitals that I liked very much: a heartfelt offering is welcome.
The liturgy
The Divine Liturgy, the Badarak, was celebrated by Archbishop Gomidas Ohanian, the Catholicosal Vicar of Cyprus, who has led the Armenian Prelature of Cyprus for the Catholicosate of Cilicia since 2024. He wore light blue and gold, and two vested servers assisted him, one in purple holding a censer and one in rose and burgundy. Above the altar hangs a painting of the Virgin and Child, and on a side wall there is a painting of the Baptism of Christ, with John pouring the water and the dove coming down.
The madagh
At the end of the service four baskets stood on the step before the altar, filled with portions wrapped in white, and the Archbishop blessed them with the hand cross. This is the madagh, the offering of thanksgiving that the Armenian Church blesses and then shares out, and parishes named for Saint Kevork commonly bless one on his feast. Our own parish in Nicosia is named for the Mother of God, so for a family with two Kevorks the church that bears the saint’s name was the place to be that weekend.
Limassol, by the sea
Afterwards we walked down to the sea. Near the marina a steel sculpture, a ring around a sphere, stands on the rocks beside a wooden pier. In the port, the cruise ship Aurora was berthed, with the red-tiled roof of a small chapel in front of her.
Late in the afternoon we drove out along the coast road, past the new towers that now line the shore east of the town.
The road home
The motorway back to Nicosia runs within sight of the sea past Governor’s Beach, and a sign sends you straight on for Larnaka and Lefkosia, the Greek forms of Larnaca and Nicosia. It is eighty kilometres each way, and on the weekend of my father’s and my son’s name day it was a drive worth making.
The day, in short
| What | The feast of Sourp Kevork, Saint George, at the Armenian church of Sourp Kevork in Limassol: the Sunday liturgy and the blessing of the madagh, celebrated by Archbishop Gomidas Ohanian, Catholicosal Vicar of Cyprus. |
|---|---|
| Where | Sourp Kevork Armenian Apostolic Church and the Nareg Armenian School, 16 Vassilis Michaelides Street, Limassol, about eighty kilometres south of Nicosia. |
| When | Sunday 27 September 2026. The Armenian Church keeps the feast of Saint Kevork on the last Saturday of September, which in 2026 was 26 September, and the parish celebrated it at the next day’s liturgy. |
| The church | Built in 1939 and 1940 with the donations of the community, and consecrated in 1948. |
| The school | An Armenian school has taught in Limassol since 1928; the present Nareg building opened in 2008, and lessons are in Armenian, Greek and English. |
| The three Armenian parishes with schools | Sourp Asdvadzadzin in Nicosia, consecrated in 1981; Sourp Stepanos in Larnaca, built between 1909 and 1913; and Sourp Kevork in Limassol, each beside a Nareg school. |
| The film | About five minutes, with my narration in Western Armenian, at the top of this page. More films are on the Aypoupen channel. |
My thanks go to Archbishop Gomidas Ohanian, to the clergy and to the parish of Sourp Kevork in Limassol for their welcome on the day of their feast.
