Karekin I
Karekin Sarkissian (Armenian: Գարեգին Սարգիսյան; born August 27, 1932 in Kessab (Syria ); † June 29, 1999 in Yerevan ) was first as Karekin II " Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia " and then as Karekin I. " Supreme Catholicos all Armenians " of Etchmiadzin of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Life
Sarkissian ( baptismal name: Neshan ) visited the Armenian elementary school in his native town and entered 1946 in the Theological Seminary of the Catholicosate of Cilicia in Antelias a. In 1949 he became a deacon, consecrated in 1952 as a celibate priest and thereby took the name Karekin ( Garegin ) (after Catholicos Karekin I Hovsepian ). In 1955 he was awarded his doctorate for Vardapet and Professor, later Dean of the Seminary in Antelias. 1957 to 1959 he studied at Oxford, where he earned his doctorate with a thesis on The Council of Chalcedon and the Armenian Church.
1963 to 1965, he participated as an observer at the Second Vatican Council.
On January 19, 1964 Catholicos Khoren I gave him a bishop for the diocese of Tehran. From 1971 he worked as a prelate of the Diocese of Iran and India, based in New Julfa (Isfahan ). On April 26, 1973, he was elevated to archbishop and 1975 appointed Primate of the Eastern Prelacy of the Cilician Catholicosate in New York.
On 29 May 1977 he was elected Catholicos Karekin II of Cilicia and anointed one week later. Until 1983 he worked as Catholicos Coadjutor. After the death of his predecessor Khoren I he took office full.
Since the earthquake of Spitak in 1988, had not been previously tension-free relations between the two Armenian Katholikaten normalized. Catholicos Karekin II met frequently with Catholicos of Echmiadzin Vazken I. and also took part in the funeral on 28 August 1994.
On April 4, 1995 Karekin Sarkissian was the Church National Assembly " Supreme Catholicos of All Armenians " is selected and on April 9 in Echmiadzin, here as Karekin I., Enthroned. He reorganized the clergy seminar Catholicosate and established six new dioceses, four in Armenia, two in the Diaspora.
From 10 to 14 December Karekin I visited Pope John Paul II and Rome and from 24 January to 3 February 1998 Germany.
In 1999, he succumbed to cancer. His successors were in Antelias His Holiness Aram I and in Echmiadzin Karekin II Nersissian.
Works
- Karekin Sarkissian: A Brief Introduction to Armenian Christian Literature, Faith Press, London 1960
- Karekin Sarkissian: The Council of Chalcedon and the Armenian Church. Armenian Prelacy, New York 1975.
- Karekin I, Catholicos of All Armenians: Challenges for renewal. For a new era in the Armenian Church. Diocese of the Armenian Church in Germany, Cologne 1998. ISBN Without