Home of the Catholicos

We also visited Etchmiadzin, Armenia's version of Vatican City. It's the headquarters of the Armenian church and home to its leaders, known as Catholicos. The cathedral there houses several famous relics: from St. Peter, John the Baptist, Noah's Ark and the lance that a Roman soldier used to pierce Jesus's side after he died on the cross. Of course, there is no DNA testing. But since Armenia was home to early Christians and the first country to become officially Christian, I guess it's plausible.

As a practicing Catholic, I am very aware that some of our Catholic stuff is really weird. Relics, whether Catholic or Catholico, are among the weirdest. Inside a fancy gold box is an eyelash, or a toenail, or maybe a nose hair of John the Baptist? Gross. Or gross and creepy in the holiest of ways.
I wonder what the inside of that toenail box smells like now.

Holy Lance

fragment of Noah's Ark

The gloss and prestige of Etchmiadzin stopped at the walls of the church complex. The rest of the town looked like other places in Armenia: