Vazgen I

His Holiness,National Hero of Armenia

Vazgen / Vazken I
Վազգեն Ա

Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians
His Holiness,National Hero of Armenia; Vazgen / Vazken I; Վազգեն Ա; Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians
Church	Armenian Apostolic Church
See	Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin
Installed	1955
Term ended	1994
Predecessor	George VI
Successor	Karekin I
Personal details
Born	Levon Garabed Bal gian; September 20, 1908; Bucharest,Kingdom of Romania
Died	August 18, 1994 (aged 85); Yerevan,Armenia
Buried	Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin

Vazgen IalsoVazken I of Bucharest(Armenian:Վազգէն Ա Բուխարեստցի), bornLevon Garabed Bal gian(Լևոն Կարապետ Աբրահամի Պալճյան;September 20, 1908 – August 18, 1994)^[1]was theCatholicos of All Armeniansbetween 1955 and 1994, for a total of 39 years, the4th longest reignin the history of theArmenian Apostolic Church.

A native ofRomania,he began his career as a philosopher, before becoming aDoctor of Theologyand a member of the local Armenian clergy. The leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church hierarchy in Romania, he became Catholicos in 1955, moving toSoviet Armenia.Vazgen I led the Armenian Church during thedissolution of the Soviet Union,and was the first Catholicos in newly independent Armenia.

Biography

Vazgen was born inBucharestto a family belonging to theArmenian-Romanian community.His father was a shoemaker and his mother was a schoolteacher. The young Levon Bal gian did not initially pursue the Church as a profession, instead graduating from theUniversity of Bucharest's Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. After graduation, he became a philosopher and published a series of scholarly articles.

As his interests began to shift from philosophy to theology, Bal gian studied Armenian Apostolic Theology and Divinity inAthens,Greece. He eventually gained the title ofvardapet,an ecclesiastical rank for learned preachers and teachers in the Armenian Apostolic Church roughly equivalent to receiving a doctorate in theology. In the 1940s, he became a bishop, and then thearajnord(leader) of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Romania.

His rise through the hierarchy of the Church culminated in 1955 when, on September 30, 1955, he was elected Catholicos of All Armenians, becoming one of the youngest Catholicoi in the history of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He reigned until his death in 1994. During his long time as Catholicos, he managed to assert some independence for his church in face of the Soviet rule in the Armenian SSR, and lived to seereligious freedomrestored under Armenia's national government in 1991.

From then on, he was busy renewing ancient Armenian churches and reviving institutions of the church. He saved a number of church treasures by establishing theAlex ManoogianMuseum of the Mother Church. Vazgen intensified contacts with theArmenian Catholic Church,with the aim of reuniting both wings of Armenian Christianity.

He died at his residence in Yerevan on August 18, 1994, after a long illness from cancer.^[2]

Gallery

Meeting of Vazgen I andDavid V,Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia,Yerevan, October 1972.
Architectural Commission of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin (1970–1988). First row from left:Varazdat Harutyunyan,Vazgen I, K. Altunyan Second row from left:Baghdasar Arzoumanian,H. Babakhanian,Grigor Khanjyan,A. Galikyan, M. Hovhannisyan
Vazgen I on anArmenian postage stamp
Statue in front of Vazgen I Elementary School inVanadzor
Statue in a park in Echmiadzin
Vazgen I'stombstone