Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople

The Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople , one of the smallest Patriarchates of the Oriental Orthodox Church but one that has exerted a very significant political role and today still exercises a spiritual authority.

The Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople recognizes the primacy of the Catholicos of All Armenians, in the spiritual and administrative headquarters of the Armenian Church, the Etchmiadzin, Republic of Armenia, in matters that pertain to the worldwide Armenian Apostolic Church

Armenian Apostolic Church

The Armenian Apostolic Church is the world's oldest National Church, is part of Oriental Orthodoxy, and is one of the most ancient Christian communities. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD, in establishing this church...

. In local matters, the Patriarchal See

Episcopal See

An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...

is autonomous.

The seat of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople is the Surp Asdvadzadzin Patriarchal Church (Holy Mother of God Patriarchal Church) in the Kumkapı

Kumkapi

Kumkapı is part of the Fatih district of Istanbul. It is located along the Marmara Sea. Up to recent times, Kumkapı was mostly inhabited by Armenians, who still have a community school and several churches there. It is also the seat of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople...

neighborhood of Istanbul. The current patriarch is Mesrob II (Mutafyan)

Patriarch Mesrob II Mutafyan of Constantinople

Archbishop Mesrob II Mutafyan, also known as Mesrop Mutafyan, is the 84th Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople...

(Մեսրոպ Բ. Մութաֆեան), who has been in office since 1998.

The Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople
Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople
The Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople also known as Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul is today head of The Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople , one of the smallest Patriarchates of the Oriental Orthodox Church but one that has exerted a very significant political role and today still exercises...

also known as Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul is today head of The Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Establishment of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1461

During the Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

period, the Armenian Apostolic Church had not been allowed to operate in Constantinople because the two churches mutually regarded each other as heretical. The schism was rooted in the rejection of the Council of Chalcedon

Council of Chalcedon

The Council of Chalcedon was a church council held from 8 October to 1 November, 451 AD, at Chalcedon , on the Asian side of the Bosporus. The council marked a significant turning point in the Christological debates that led to the separation of the church of the Eastern Roman Empire in the 5th...

by the Oriental Orthodox Churches, of which the Armenian Church is a part, while the Byzantine Church and the rest of Eastern Orthodoxy had accepted.

After conquering Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

allowed the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople

Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople , part of the wider Orthodox Church, is one of the fourteen autocephalous churches within the communion of Orthodox Christianity...

to stay in the city. But Sultan Mehmed II

Mehmed II

Mehmed II , was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to September 1446, and later from...

allowed the Armenians to establish their own church in the new Ottoman capital, as part of the Millet system. For a short period, the Syriac Orthodox Church

Syriac Orthodox Church

The Syriac Orthodox Church; is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Eastern Mediterranean, with members spread throughout the world. The Syriac Orthodox Church claims to derive its origin from one of the first Christian communities, established in Antioch by the Apostle St....

was also placed under the jurisdiction of the Armenian Patriarchate.

The first Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople was Hovakim I

Hovakim I of Constantinople

Hovakim I, also known as Hovakim of Bursa, was the first Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople under the authority of the Catholicos of Armenia and of all Armenians. He and his community were invited to the city by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II to the city from Bursa in 1461, eight years after the...

, who was at the time the Metropolitan of Bursa

Bursa, Turkey

Bursa is a city in northwestern Turkey and the seat of Bursa Province. The metropolitan area in the entire Bursa province had a population of 2.6 million as of 2010, making the city fourth most populous in Turkey. The city is equally one of the most industrialized metropolitan centers in the...

. In 1461, he was brought to Constantinople by Sultan Mehmed II and established as the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople. Hovakim I was recognized as the religious and secular leader of all Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, and carried the title of milletbaşı
Millet (Ottoman Empire)
Millet is a term for the confessional communities in the Ottoman Empire. It refers to the separate legal courts pertaining to "personal law" under which communities were allowed to rule themselves under their own system...

or ethnarch

Ethnarch

Ethnarch, pronounced , the anglicized form of ethnarches refers generally to political leadership over a common ethnic group or homogeneous kingdom. The word is derived from the Greek words and ....

as well as patriarch

Patriarch

Originally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy. This is a Greek word, a compound of πατριά , "lineage, descent", esp...

.

There have been 84 individual Patriarchs since establishment of the Patriarchate:

75 patriarchs during the Ottoman period (1461-1908)
4 patriarchs in the Young Turks
Young Turks
The Young Turks , from French: Les Jeunes Turcs) were a coalition of various groups favouring reformation of the administration of the Ottoman Empire. The movement was against the absolute monarchy of the Ottoman Sultan and favoured a re-installation of the short-lived Kanûn-ı Esâsî constitution...

period (1908-1922)
5 patriarchs in the current secular Republic of Turkey (1923 - present)

Ottoman Period 1461-1908

The Armenian Patriarchate served the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire with a line of Patriarchs in Constantinople.

However like the Greek Patriarchate, the Armenians suffered severely from intervention by the state in their internal affairs.

Although there have been 115 pontificates since 1461, there have only been 84 individual Patriarchs.

In 1861, a national constitution (Sahmanadrootiun in Armenian) was granted to Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Abdülaziz

Abdülâziz

Abdülaziz I or Abd Al-Aziz, His Imperial Majesty was the 32nd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and reigned between 25 June 1861 and 30 May 1876...

.

In 1896 Patriarch Madteos III (Izmirlian) was deposed and exiled to Jerusalem by Sultan Abdülhamid II for boldly denouncing the 1896 massacre. The constitution governing the Armenians was suspended by the Sultan.

Young Turks Period 1908 - 1922

The Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople Madteos III (Izmirlian) was permitted to return to Istanbul in 1908 when Sultan Abdulhamid II was deposed by the Young Turks.

The new Turkish administration also restored the constitution. In the initial period of the reign of the Young Turks, the Armenians enjoyed a brief period of restoration of civil liberties between 1908 and 1915.

However starting 1915, the Armenians suffered great hardship under the Young Turk administration and the Armenian community of Turkey was decimated by mass deportations of its Armenian population and the Armenian Genocide

Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...

.

In this critical period, the post of the Patriarch remained vacant from 1915 to 1919 to be restored for a brief period from 1919 to 1922 with Patriarch Zaven I Der Yeghiayan residing.

Four Armenian Patriarchs served under the rule of the Young Turks.

Republic of Turkey; Secularism, 1923-Present

Despite a huge diminution in the number of its faithful during the Armenian Genocide, the patriarchate remains the spiritual head of the largest Christian community presently living in Turkey.

Today, the Armenian Patriarchs are recognized as the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Turkey and he is invited to state ceremonies.

Five Armenian Patriarchs have served after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey.

Publications

The Patriarchate publishes an annual review in Armenian called Shoghagat (Rays from Above), containing theological, liturgical, historical and cultural articles.

A small, illustrated bulletin Lraper is published weekly (monthly in the summer months). The bilingual Lraper is in Armenian and Turkish.

External links