Bishop Marcos Hovhannisyan appointed to serve as Primate of the Armenian Diocese of Ukraine

April 2015

By the Pontifical Order of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, His Grace Bishop Markos Hovhannisyan has retired from serving as the Primate of the Diocese of Gegharkunik and was appointed to serve as the new Primate of the Armenian Diocese of Ukraine.

BIOGRAPHY

Bishop Marcos Hovhannisian was born in 1973 in the village of Bardzrashen, in the Araratian region of Armenia. He received his primary education at the secondary school #5, in the town of Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin), Armenia.

In 1990 he entered the Gevorkian Theological Seminary at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and graduated in 1996 after the successful defense of his thesis. He was ordained to the diaconate in 1996, by His Grace Bishop Anania Arabadjian.

Following his graduation, he served at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin in the “Alex and Marie Manoogian” Treasury House. He went on to serve the spiritual needs of the faithful as a member of the Army Chaplaincy program for the Republic of Armenia Armed Forces. He served as a spiritual counselor there from 1998 to 2000.

He was ordained a celibate priest on February 29, 2000, by His Eminence Archbishop Shahe Ajemian, and given the priestly name of Marcos. Following his ordination, he was assigned to serve in the Diocese of Russia and Nor Nakhitchevan as an assistant to the Primate, where he served until 2001. After 2001 he served as the spiritual pastor of St. Gregory the Illuminator Church of Riga, Latvia.

Continuing in his education, Father Marcos entered the St.Tikhon Orthodox Theological Institute in Moscow where he furthered his theological study.

Father Marcos received the rank of Archimandrite (Vartabet) in 2005, after he successfully presented and defended his doctoral thesis entitled “Inscriptions from the Viewpoint of Ecclesiastical Studies”.

In 2005, he was appointed as a Locum Tenens the Diocese of Gegharkunik

On November 19, 2006 Father Marcos was consecrated as a Bishop by the Catholicos of All Armenians, His Holiness Karekin II in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.

Bishop Marcos served as the Primate of the Diocese of Gegharkunik. In March 2015, by the Pontifical Order of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, His Grace Bishop Markos Hovhannisyan was appointed to serve as the Primate of the Armenian Diocese of Ukraine.

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