Catholicos of All Armenians
{{Short description|Head of the Armenian Apostolic Church}}
{{no footnotes|date=March 2013}}{{Infobox diocese
| titleoverride = Catholicos of
| bishopric = All Armenians
| border = apostolic
| image = Karekin II.jpg
| local = {{nobold|Ամենայն Հայոց Կաթողիկոս}}
| coat = Armenian Apostolic Church logo.svg
| coat_caption = Karekin II's coat of arms
| incumbent = Karekin II
| incumbent_note = since 4 November 1999
| style = His Holiness
| established = 301
| cathedral = Etchmiadzin Cathedral, Vagharshapat, Armavir Province, Armenia
| first_incumbent = Saint Gregory the Illuminator
| diocese = Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin
| website = {{url|https://www.armenianchurch.org/}}
|jurisdiction=|name=|country=|denomination=}}
The Catholicos of All Armenians ({{langx|hy|Ամենայն Հայոց Կաթողիկոս}}) is the chief bishop and spiritual leader of Armenia's national church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, and the worldwide Armenian diaspora. The Armenian Catholicos (plural Catholicoi) is also known as the Armenian Pontiff (Վեհափառ, Vehapar or Վեհափառ Հայրապետ, Vehapar Hayrapet) and by other titles. According to tradition, the apostles Saint Thaddeus and Saint Bartholomew brought Christianity to Armenia in the first century.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books/about?id=8WPfEAAAQBAJ |title =The Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew: Greek, Arabic, and Armenian Versions |isbn = 9798868951473 |last1 = Curtin|first1 = D. P.|date = January 2014}} Saint Gregory the Illuminator became the first Catholicos of All Armenians following the nation's adoption of Christianity as its state religion in 301 AD. The seat of the Catholicos, and the spiritual and administrative headquarters of the Armenian Church, is the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, located in the city of Vagharshapat.
The Armenian Apostolic Church is part of the Oriental Orthodox communion. This communion includes the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
The incumbent Catholicos of the Armenian Church is Karekin II since 1999.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/06/us/religion-journal-armenian-church-gets-a-new-worldwide-leader.html|title=Religion Journal; Armenian Church Gets a New Worldwide Leader|author=Gustav Niebuhr|work=The New York Times|date=6 November 1999|access-date=28 May 2025}}
Other names
The Catholicos is often referred to both by the church and the media as the Armenian Pontiff.{{cite web |title=The Message of the Armenian Pontiff on the 2020 Artsakh War |url=https://beta.armenianchurch.org/en/video-gallery/the-message-of-the-armenian-pontiff-on-the-2020-artsakh-war/946 |website=armenianchurch.org |publisher=Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221203183513/https://beta.armenianchurch.org/en/video-gallery/the-message-of-the-armenian-pontiff-on-the-2020-artsakh-war/946 |archive-date=3 December 2022 |date=30 September 2020}}{{cite news |title=Armenian Pontiff To Visit Azerbaijan |url=https://www.azatutyun.am/a/2021293.html |work=azatutyun.am |agency=RFE/RL |date=April 22, 2010}} Historically, the Catholicos was known in English and other languages as the Armenian Patriarch or the Patriarch of Armenia, and sometimes as the Patriarch of Etchmiadzin (or Echmiadzin) to distinguish from the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople and the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem.{{cite web |last1=Fortescue |first1=Adrian |author1-link=Adrian Fortescue |title=Eastern Churches: Armenians |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05230a.htm |website=The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 5 |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |location=New York |date=1909 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221124150903/https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05230a.htm |archive-date=2022-11-24 |quote=The first is the Patriarch of Etchmiadzin, who bears as a special title that of catholicos.}}{{cite journal |last1=Tsimhoni |first1=Daphne |title=The Armenians and the Syrians: Ethno-Religious Communities in Jerusalem |journal=Middle Eastern Studies |date=1984 |volume=20 |issue=3 |page=355 |doi=10.1080/00263208408700589 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/i390565 |quote=A final reconciliation between the patriarch of Etchmiadzin and the Catholics of Cilicia took place in Jerusalem in 1963.|url-access=subscription }}{{cite book |last1=Tozer |first1=Henry Fanshawe |author1-link=Henry Fanshawe Tozer |title=Turkish Armenia and Eastern Asia Minor |date=1881 |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Company |location=London |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=juMGAAAAQAAJ&dq=%22Patriarch+of+Etchmiadzin%22&pg=PA161 161] |quote=...confirmed by the patriarch of Etchmiadzin, who is the head of the whole Armenian community throughout the world.}} To distinguish from the Catholicos (or Patriarch) of Cilicia, historically based in Sis and now in Antelias (Lebanon), he may be referred to as the Catholicos of Etchmiadzin.{{cite journal |last1=Corley |first1=Felix |title=The Armenian Church under the Soviet regime, Part 2: The leadership of Vazgen |journal=Religion, State and Society |date=1996 |volume=24 |issue=4 |page=292 |doi=10.1080/09637499608431748 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09637499608431748?journalCode=crss20 |quote=...the archbishops and bishops, being under the influence of the Dashnaks, tried to sabotage the calling of a Council in Echmiadzin to elect the head of the Church, the Catholicos of All the Armenians.'|url-access=subscription }}{{cite web |title=ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE JOHN PAUL II TO CATHOLICOS OF CILICIA |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1997/january/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19970125_catholicos-cilicia.html |website=vatican.va |publisher=Libreria Editrice Vaticana |date=25 January 1997 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220629124402/https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1997/january/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19970125_catholicos-cilicia.html |archive-date=2022-06-29 |quote=...His Holiness Karekin II, who last December, as Catholicos of Etchmiadzin, returned to pay a visit to the Successor of Peter, thereby confirming our fraternal ties.}} To underscore his supremacy over other patriarchs, the Catholicos is sometimes referred to in English as the Armenian Pope.{{cite book |last1=Barry |first1=James |title=Armenian Christians in Iran: Ethnicity, Religion, and Identity in the Islamic Republic |date=2018 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108429047 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vuVqDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22armenian+pope%22&pg=PA97 97] |quote=The Catholicos of Etchmiadzin is recognised as the overall head of the church (much like an Armenian “Pope”)...}}
- {{cite book |last1=Laqueur |first1=Walter |author1-link=Walter Laqueur |title=Communism And Nationalism In The Middle East |date=1956 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.226598/page/n242/mode/1up?view=theater 233] |quote=...on the "Armenian Pope," the Catholikos in Etchmiadzin, near Erivan.}}
- {{cite web |title=Our Churches - Armenian Apostolic Church |url=https://www.ncca.org.au/ncca-newsletter/february-2019-2/item/1626-our-churches-armenian-apostolic-church-2019022 |website=ncca.org.au |publisher=National Council of Churches in Australia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221103225551/https://www.ncca.org.au/ncca-newsletter/february-2019-2/item/1626-our-churches-armenian-apostolic-church-2019022 |archive-date=3 November 2022 |date=11 February 2019 |quote=Armenian Pope, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians visits Australia.}}
See also
References
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External links
- [http://www.armenianchurch.org/index.jsp?&lng=en Official site of The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin]
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