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This Church
is situated at 1, Armenian Street. The route through Clive Row
leads to Old China Bazar Street. A few paces ahead, amidst the
din and bustle of the street and the cluster of shops, the church
is distinctly visible. This is the northern entrance of the Church. The western
entrance is almost imperceptible due to the rows of shops and
the sea
of people thronging on the streets. At present this Church is not much frequented by people.
Prayer or Assembly occur only thrice a week.
Some opine that this is the oldest Church in Calcutta. The Armenians
have been staying in India since remote antiquity. The Armenians
claim to have arrived in India before the British. They also claim to have
been the forerunners to be converted into Christianity in the
European continent. On 22nd June, 1688, the East India Co. had
entered into a contract with the Armenians in Europe. Sir Josia
Child on behalf of the East India Co. and Khoja Sarhad along with
Khoja Phanoosh on behalf of the Armenians, signed the contract.
As per the contract, the East India Co. was supposed to construct
a church in all corners of India where a minimum
of 40 Armenians would inhabit. The former would also grant 50
pounds to the appointed priest as his remuneration.
According to this contract, Job Charnock came to Calcutta for the
last time in 1690. 17 years later, the East India Co. constructed
a tiny wooden church at the south-eastern wing of the present
Armenian Church. A different opinion suggests that an Armenian
named Aga Nazar had collected funds painstakingly and constructed
this church.
Seventeen years later, the modern church came into being in 1724. It
is said to have been built in the vacant land purchased in 1720
by an Armenian named Kenanentekh Phanoosh for building a cemetery
for his community. But there is no controversy about the fact that
this church was built by Aga Nazar. But controversies and conflicting
views abound with one particular grave in this necropolis.
This controversial grave is in front of the main building of the
church. The following lines are engraved on the tomb – "This is
the tomb of Reza Bibi, wife of the late charitable Sookias who
departed from this world to life eternal". Another script is inscribed
with this in Armenian language. There is a lot of controversy
prevailing among the researchers about this Armenian Script, Mesrov
Je Seth authored a book on the Armenians of Calcutta. He deciphered
the script on Armenian cemetery and apprised that the mentioned
grave belonged to 1630.
Aga Mamed Hazaar Maliyar constructed this church in 1734. The
interior embellishment of the church was done by Katchik Arfiel. He was of Armenian origin.
He built residential abodes for the priests and erected high wall
around the cemetery. He also donated the wonderful church clock.
The floor inside the church is made of blocks of stone. The
spiralling
stair-case leads to the gallery on the first floor. Armenian names
are inscribed hither and thither. Beside the altar, there are
three oil-paintings of the eminent English painter A.E. Harris
which have an extremely soothening effect.
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