Pope Francis specially mentioned Grigor Narekatsi as the translator of universal solidarity at the traditional meeting held in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican on April 26.

According to Armenpress, the Facebook page of the Armenian Embassy at the Vatican reports that Pope Francis, referring to the “Book of Tragedies,” a collection of prayers, said: “Saint Grigor Narekatsi is the man who left us a prayer book in which the faith of the Armenian people was assimilated. He was an Armenian priest. Grigor Narekatsi is a shining example of global, universal love.”

The message says: “His Holiness noted that the Armenian priest spent his entire life in the Monastery of Narek, where he ‘learned to thoroughly explore the depths of the human soul and, combining prayer and poetry, defined the pinnacle of both Armenian literature and the Armenian spiritual heritage. The Pope’s speech on the Armenian saint was published in the Vatican News in nearly four dozen languages, including Western Armenian, English, French, Portuguese and Russian.”

According to the source, on April 12, 2015, during a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the  Genocide against armenians at St. Peter’s Cathedral in the Vatican, the Archbishop of Rome declared the medieval Armenian cleric the head of the Universal Church, and the Feb. 2 Decree of Pope Francis in 2021 included February 27 in the main Roman calendar as Saint Grigor Narekatsi’s Memorial Day.