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Vazgen I Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church between 1955 and 1994
Rating: 4.81, visits: 16424 (today: 3)
Birthdate: 20.09.1908
Death date: 18.08.1994
His Holiness Vazgen I, born Levon Garabed Baljian, was the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church between 1955 and 1994.
Vazgen was born in Bucharest to a family belonging to the Armenian-Romanian community. The young Levon Baljian did not initially pursue the Church as a profession, instead graduating from the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. After graduation, he became a philosopher and published a series of scholarly articles, was the editor and publisher of the scientific-popular journal "Herk".
In 1929-1943 he taught at Bucharest Armenian schools.
As his interests began to shift from philosophy to theology, Baljian studied Armenian Apostolic Theology and Divinity in Athens, Greece. He eventually gained the title of vardapet, 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 the arajnord (leader) of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Romania. His rise through the hierarchy of the Church culminated in 1955 when he was elected Catholicos, becoming one of the youngest Catholicoi in the history of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He would reign until his death in 1994. During his long time as Catholicos, he managed to assert some independence for his church in face of the totalitarian Soviet rule in the Armenian SSR, and lived to see religious freedom restored under Armenia's national government in 1991.
He is the author of a number of studies in the field of Armenology. For his merits in the area the establishment of peace he was awarded Gold Medal after Joliot Curie, numerous diplomas and orders.
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published: 2006-01-01 00:00:00
last updated:2010-02-08 16:13:36
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