Karekin I: The All Armenian Catholicos of blessed Memory

by Ashot Vavyan
30/8/2011

The prophets are persons sent by God, transmitting His words, called to certain mission by the Almighty. They are the men of future, whose tellings and actions are not accessible for their circumstances and to understand them a certain period of time is needed. This is the reason for which they are not accepted in their own surrounding, and even are subjected to persecutions.

“A Prophet is without honor only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his own home,” says Jesus Christ in the Gospel. The prophets or persons with prophetic gift may be nowdays, too, but they are hardly noticed “in our own home”. But we must try to discover them, in order to be led by them, because as our Lord has warned. “If one blind person leads another blind person, both will fall into a ditch.”

In the opinion of Italian writer, historian and scholar Giovanni Guaita His Holliness Karekin I was a person playing prophetic role in the contemporary history and in the history of the Armenian Church. The words of praise about Vehapar were not so abundant in his homeland, while his merit was greatly appreciated in abroad.

The greatness of the Catholicos of all Armenians was noted by the “poetess of all Armenians” Silva Kaputikyan, who mourned thus when he left us. “It’s a great pity that the 131st Catholicos left us so early, and so tragically was interrupted his speech, that sounded so beautifully from his lips demonstrating the most valuable abilities of the Armenian mind and language. Fortunately remained his deeds beneficial for the nation, numerous and various works which are written testimonies of his extraordinary talent and his heart filled with Armenian soul. They had much to accomplish in our money-worshiping times that challenge our identity and spirit.”

Son of Hagop and Ovsanna Sarkissian, the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin I, of Blessed Memory, was born in a Syrian town of Kessab populated with Armenians. He studied theology in Oxford, where defended in English a graduation thesis on “The Council of Chalcedon and the Armenian Church”.

As the dean of Antilias seminary, as the Prelate of Iranian-Indian or the Eastern Prelacy of North America, everywhere under his leadership was recorded succes in the national-ecclesiastical life. Thanks to his efforts the Catholicosate joined The World Council of Churches, where he took leadership positions.

15 of his 18 years as the Catholicos of The Great House of Cilicia were the hardest years of the Lebanese civil war, when Vehapar due to his wisdom managed to keep the Armenian community away from destructive challenges. During those years under bombing attacks much was accomplished in the religious, national, educational, cultural and construction spheres of the community of the country of cedars, the same was done in other dioceses belonging to Antilias.

In communities everywhere he found warm reception and in Antilias people in inspiration were laying flowers on his way. He was enjoying great reputation, sympathy and respect also among the religious and political figures of other nations, which was beneficial for the church and the nation. As a famous figure of the ecumenical and interreligious movements his exhortation to his people was to “keep pace with the world without going astray from our road.”

His Holiness was a man of faith, idea and action, he never sought to obtain an office or a special position.

“I always hated the ambitious passion of getting a success. I think that it’s even the death of being called a human. It’s impossible to serve with joy, if the propulsives and motives of your deeds are to achieve an authoritative position or power, and not the internal mental need”, he said.

Foreign to this idea Armenia’s political leadership pursuing its own political goals sought the nomination of the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Karekin II in the position of the Catholicos of All Armenians. But there was much to be done, and unfinished works were left, too. Gracious Vehapar was assured that the people of Armenia needed him and were waiting for him.

But Vehapar’s coming to Armenia was the Lord’s project, which was testified in the Mother Cathedral in the sermon devoted to the tenth anniversary of his passing, when His Eminence Archbishop Khajag Barsamian as if under the Heaven’s influence said: “In historically hard times His Holiness answered to the God’s call, came to shepherd his flock, he came to serve his people as a Patriarch of All Armenians. The yoke was heavy, but remembering Moses’s commandment to J?shua saying him “be courageous, because the Spirit of God is with you”, he came to be a Brave Shepherd. Inspired by the Holy Spirit he continued to guide his flock and lead to the Source of the Light. His Holiness Karekin I is outstanding personality, a person of global recognition and influence, who became a stimulating power for the belivers of different churches”.

It was not easy for Vehapar to act among the people, actually who were Christian only outwardly, where still the soviet atheism dominated, where almost the whole society took into account the unwritten norms of the “goghakan (thieves’) ideology”. He had to feel, that only a few from the people meeting him were frank and that everybody sought only personal interests. He had to see the day by day developing mercenary and inhuman greediness. And with pain he would confess, that “it is much easier to build where nothing exists, rather than to restore an atrophied heritage, such as Armenia.”

But despite these unfavorable conditions Vehapar managed to carry the cross which, in his own words, had become heavier and did a great work in the short period of his being a Catholicos: he undertook the formation of national-christian consciousness of the population, established promotional and educational institutions, prepared young clerics, formed the organizational structure of the Holy See, opened Church Dioceses, reconstructed and built dozens of churches, published numerous books, presented the ambitious program for the 1700th anniversary of Christianity, shepherded entrusted worldwide flock.

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