Chosen of God

The Election of the Catholicos of all Armenians

From the Fourth Century to the Present

by Rev. Father Krikor Vardapet Maksoudian

Edited by Christopher H. Zakian
This material is presented solely for non-commercial educational/research purposes.
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Preface, ix

1. Early Evidence of the Episcopate in Armenia, 1
2.The Election of Catholicoi in the Fifth Century, 12
3. The Election of Catholicoi, During the Sixth and Seventh Centuries, 20
4.The Election of Catholicoi During the Period of Arab Domination, 30
5.The Election of Catholicoi Under the Bagratid Kings, 35
6.The Election of Catholicoi Under Byzantine Rule, 40
7.The Succession of the Pahlawuni Catholicoi, 44
8.The Election of Catholicoi During the Cilician Kingdom, 41
9.The Election of Catholicoi After the Fall of the Cilician Kingdom, 60
10.The Transfer of the Catholicate to Holy Etchmiadzin, 69

As our website ends with events of the 15th century, we have not webified the remainder of Krikor Vardapet's work, with the exception of the open links below:

11. The Succession of Catholicoi from 1443 to 1629, 76
12. Elections During the Period 1629-1843, 82
13. The Election of Catholicoi from 1843 to 1911, 109
14. The Election of Catholicoi Since 1932, 124
15. The Election of 1995, 138
16. Epilogue, 140

Notes to the Text, 143

Appendices, 163

1. The Text of the Polozhenie in Classical Armenian, 164
2. The Text of the Polozhenie in Modern Armenian, 167
3. Original Armenian Text of the Oath of Office, 170
4. Original Armenian Text of the Special Bylaws (1925), 171
5. Original Armenian Text of the Special Bylaws (1945), 175
6. The Catholicoi of All Armenians, 178
7. Present-day Patriarchates and Dioceses, 182

Bibliography, 185

Map

Two other works by Krikor Vardapet are available on other pages of this website: The Passion of Saint Shushanik [The Martyrdom of Saint Vardan Mamikonean's Daughter] (5th century); and Yovhannes Drasxanakertc'i's History of Armenia (10th century).

The following chronological tables may be useful as accompaniments to this work. The tables and most other links on this page open in separate windows. Additional tables are available on another page of this site: Chronological Tables.

Rulers of Armenia and of Eastern and Western Empires Kat'oghikoi and Corresponding Secular Rulers of the Armenians Rulers of Armenia and Iberia/Ge'orgia

HTML formatting by Robert Bedrosian, 2010. This edition of Chosen of God follows the new Library of Congress system for Armenian, which eliminates diacritical marks above or below a character and substitutes single or double quotation marks to the character's right. In the LOC romanization, the seventh character of the alphabet (է) appears as e', the eighth (ը) as e", the twenty-eighth (ռ) as r', and the thirty-eighth (o), as o'.

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By order of His Eminence
Archbishop Khajag Barsamian
Primate, Diocese of the Armenian Church of America
Printed as a book
by St. Vartan Press (N.Y. 1995)