3 We may consider these facts to be of such force, that We trust many who hitherto have remained out of communion with Us will incline now to the renewal of it; and if a fear that they will not find the Holy See sufficiently interested in them, or will not be welcomed as lovingly as they wish, is any reason for delay or obstinacy, bid them, Venerable Brethren, recall to their minds the acts of Our predecessors, who have never permitted the Armenians to feel the want of fatherly affection. For the Roman Pontiffs have always offered them a cordial welcome - whether as pilgrims or as refugees-and have even desired to open hospices for them. It is well known that Gregory XIII intended to fund a school for the education of Armenian youths, and when, cut off by death, he was unable to do this, Urban VIII partially effected it by receiving Armenians among other students into the immense college founded by him for the propagation of the faith. We, however, though Our lot has been cast in troublous times, were enabled by God's help to carry out more completely the plans of Gregory XIII, and We devoted a house of considerable size dedicated to St. Nicholas, at Tolentino, for the needs of Armenian students - which We have formally erected into their College. All this has been done in order to render due honour to the Armenian liturgy and language, which are immortalised in an abundance of writings which are at once ancient, graceful, and polished; for this object also it has been long the custom for one of the bishops professing your rite to remain always in Rome, and it is his duty to ordain the young Armenians whom the Lord has chosen for His vineyard. For these reasons a class of the Armenian language has long been an institution in the Urban College, and Pius IX, Our predecessor, arranged that there should be a professor in the Roman Pontifical Seminary to teach Our own students the language, literature, and history of the Armenian nation. Nor was the care of the Roman Pontiffs for that people confined to the limits of this city, for there are few things which they had so constantly at heart as extricating your Church from complication, healing the wounds inflicted upon it by the evils of the times, and consulting its interests. No one is ignorant of the zeal with which Benedict XIV strove that your liturgy might be kept in its entirety like that of other Eastern Churches, and that the succession of the Catholic Patriarchs of Armenia in the See of Sizeboli might be restored. You are also well aware of the action taken by Leo XII and Pius VIII towards obtaining a prefect of civil affairs in the chief city of the Armenian Ottoman Empire, as was the privilege of other nations acknowledging the same rule. Finally, the action of Gregory XVI and Pius IX in the increase of episcopal sees in your country, and in giving to the Armenian Bishop of Constantinople an honourable rank and prestige, are of recent date; this being first accomplished when the Archiepiscopal and Primatial See was constituted, and again by the union made with it and the Patriarchate of Cilicia - under this condition, that the Patriarch should dwell in the capital of the empire. Lest, moreover, the distance intervening between the Armenian faithful and the Roman See might weaken the bonds between them, it was prudently arranged that there should be an Apostolic Delegate in the capital of the empire to take the place of the Pope. To the anxious care which We have felt for your nation you yourselves can bear witness, and We in Our turn testify to your goodwill towards Us, of which We have received proof many times.
Source: Paterna Caritas (Vatican.va)