Within the framework of a joint book series produced by the Office of the Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the DIALOG NGO, a booklet titled “Artsakh Miracle Narratives” has been published. The ancient and contemporary miracle accounts presented in the brochure testify that, for the Christian world, the miracles performed by Jesus Christ more than 2,000 years ago were unique manifestations of divine revelation and salvation—both in antiquity and today.

A miracle—astonishing and exceptional in its extraordinary nature—is understood as an enduring expression and proof of God’s boundless love for humankind. In this sense, the sacred narratives woven around Artsakh’s holy sites, chapels, and churches, the hallowed legends recorded by Armenian chroniclers, and the miraculous events experienced by individuals during the tragic events in Artsakh are no exception. Examples include “The Vision Under the Rock” and “The Child’s Miracle,” in which a settlement of strategic importance is suddenly enveloped in fog and, through the prayers of the faithful community, is spared enemy bombardment; or the account in which, during the depopulation of the Shahumyan region, a child who accidentally falls from a mother’s arms into the Tartar River is saved through a vision of the Holy Mother of God, among others.

God is eternal, and only the believer knows that God’s miracles are born of faith, beyond time and space—for example, an unexpected recovery from an incurable illness, or an unforeseen way out of a hopeless situation—culminating in a sanctified and heightened emotional-spiritual state as a God-pleasing reward.

Today, more than ever, as our people live with a constant expectation of witnessing miracles, reliance on the intervention of divine power is perceived as the greatest miracle of all—if only we can be worthy of it: “Go; and let it be to you as you have believed” (Matthew 8:13).

The booklet “Artsakh Miracle Narratives,” of course, does not claim to meet the standards required of academic scholarship. Nevertheless, the miracles described within it bear witness to faith in the divine power of miracles. This faith transcends the boundaries of human thought, logic, and comprehension, and continues to manifest itself in the present day as humanity persists in seeking visible miracles.

Artsakh Miracle Narratives, comp. Deacon Edward Keshishyan, Melanya Balayan. Yerevan: Edit Print, 2025—68 pp.

Tamar Hayrapetyan, Doctor of Philological Sciences