Cardinal Gregorio's (15 September 1895 – 16 May 1971) body returning home to Lebanon from Rome, Italy last September 12, 2024. Body looks like a man in his 30s though he was 77 at his death. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorio_Pietro_Agagianian
Gregorio Pietro Agagianian Servant of God Gregorio Pietro XV Agagianian Գրիգոր Պետրոս ԺԵ Աղաճանեան Cardinal Patriarch of Cilicia Prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith Photograph by David Lees, 1965 Church Armenian Catholic Church See Cilicia Appointed 13 December 1937 Term ended 25 August 1962 Predecessor Avedis Bedros XIV Arpiarian Successor Ignatius Bedros XVI Batanian Other post(s) Cardinal-Bishop of Albano Previous post(s) Titular Bishop of Comana Armeniae (1935–1937) Cardinal-Priest of San Bartolomeo all'Isola (1946–1970) Prefect of the Congregation for Propagation of the Faith (1960–1970), pro-Prefect (1958–1960) Orders Ordination 23 December 1917 Consecration 21 July 1935 by Bishop Serge Der Abrahamian[1] Created cardinal 18 February 1946 by Pope Pius XII Rank Cardinal-Priest (1946–1970) Cardinal-Bishop (1970–1971) Personal details Born Ghazaros Aghajanian 15 September 1895 Akhaltsikhe, Russian Empire (present-day Georgia) Died 16 May 1971 (aged 75) Rome, Italy Nationality Armenian (ethnicity) Lebanese (citizen) Vatican (citizen) Russian Empire (subject by birth)[a] Denomination Armenian Catholic Residence Rome, Beirut Motto Iustitia et Pax (Justice and Peace) Coat of arms Sainthood Venerated in Catholic Church Title as Saint Servant of God Styles of Gregorio Pietro Agagianian Reference style His Eminence Spoken style Your Eminence Posthumous style Servant of God Informal style Cardinal See Cilicia Gregorio Pietro XV Agagianian (ah-gah-JAHN-yan;[3] anglicized: Gregory Peter;[6] Western Armenian: Գրիգոր Պետրոս ԺԵ. Աղաճանեան,[7] Krikor Bedros ŽĒ. Aghajanian; born Ghazaros Aghajanian, 15 September 1895 – 16 May 1971) was an Armenian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was the head of the Armenian Catholic Church (as Patriarch of Cilicia) from 1937 to 1962 and supervised the Catholic Church's missionary work for more than a decade, until his retirement in 1970. He was considered papabile on two occasions, in 1958 and 1963. Educated in Tiflis and Rome, Agagianian first served as leader of the Armenian Catholic community of Tiflis before the Bolshevik takeover of the Caucasus in 1921. He then moved to Rome, where he first taught and then headed the Pontifical Armenian College until 1937 when he was elected to lead the Armenian Catholic Church, which he revitalized after major losses the church had experienced during the Armenian genocide. Agagianian was elevated to the cardinalate in 1946 by Pope Pius XII. He was Prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide) from 1958 to 1970. Theologically a moderate, a linguist, and an authority on the Soviet Union, he served as one of the four moderators at the Second Vatican Council. His cause for canonization was opened on 28 October 2022.[8]
Education and priesthood Agagianian received primary education at the Karapetian School in Akhaltsikhe.[15] He later attended the Russian Orthodox Tiflis Seminary and then the Pontifical Urban University in Rome in 1906.[19][14] His outstanding performance in the latter was noted by Pope Pius X, who told the young Agagianian: "You will be a priest, a bishop, and a patriarch."[20] He was ordained priest in Rome on 23 December 1917.[13][1] Despite the upheaval brought by the Russian Revolution, he thereafter served as a parish priest in Tiflis (Tbilisi) and then as pastor of the city's Armenian Catholic community from 1919.[21][9] He left for Rome in 1921, after the Democratic Republic of Georgia was invaded by the Red Army.[19] He later said he was not confined by the Bolsheviks as "they had many other things to do."[21] In late 1921, Agagianian became a faculty member and assistant rector of the Pontifical Armenian College in Rome. He later served as rector of the college from 1932 to 1937. He was also a faculty member of the Pontifical Urban University from 1922 to 1932.[19][13] Agagianian was appointed titular bishop of Comana di Armenia on 11 July 1935, and was ordained bishop on 21 July 1935, at the San Nicola da Tolentino Church in Rome. His episcopal motto was Iustitia et Pax ("Justice and Peace").[1][22]
Armenian Catholic Patriarch On 30 November 1937, Agagianian was elected Patriarch of Cilicia by the synod of bishops of the Armenian Catholic Church, an Eastern particular church sui iuris of the Catholic Church. The election received Papal assent on 13 December 1937.[19][1] He took the name Gregory Peter (French: Grégoire-Pierre; Armenian: Krikor Bedros) and became the 15th patriarch of the Armenian Catholic Church, which had 50,000 to 100,000 adherents.[5][23] All Armenian Catholic Patriarchs have Peter (Petros/Bedros) in their pontifical name as an expression of allegiance to the church founded by Saint Peter.[24] According to Rouben Paul Adalian, the Armenian Catholic Church regained its stature in the Armenian diaspora under the "astute management" of Agagianian following the sizable losses in the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.[25] As patriarch, he had immediate ecclesiastical jurisdiction over around 18,000 Catholic Armenians in Lebanon.[5] Agagianian reportedly played a key role in keeping the Armenian-populated village of Kessab within Syria when Turkey annexed the Hatay State in 1939 by intervening as a representative of the Vatican.[26] According to historian Felix Corley, "One of the fiercest opponents of Communist rule in Armenia was the head of the Armenian Catholic community in Lebanon, Cardinal Bedros (Peter) Agagianian. In successive pastoral letters Agagianian attacked the Communists' record and spoke of the 'bitter reality and material misery' in Soviet Armenia."[27] In 1950, Agagianian published a new pastoral letter in the journal Avetik in which he accused the Armenian Apostolic Church of breaking with its own past by rejecting the Council of Chalcedon and embracing what he termed the heresy of Miaphysitism. Agagianian also alleged, "The Catholic Armenian Apostolic Church is the only preserver of the holy faith and rites of our ancestors including Gregory the Illuminator."[28] According to Felix Corley, opposition to Agagianian and his pastoral letter caused a rare moment of unity between the two divided factions of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Followers of both Kevork VI, the Pro-Soviet Catholicos of Etchmiadzin and Karekin I, the anti-communist and Armenian nationalist Catholicos of Cilicia in Antelias, finally, "had something to agree on in their condemnation of Agagianian". Among many other things, Agagianian was accused by Oriental Orthodox clergy of being "self-appointed" and having no lawful spiritual authority over the Armenian people. It is very telling, however, that "even on such a key matter", Catholicos-Patriarch Kevork VI had to file a written request with the Council of Ministers of the Armenian SSR and, "had to depend on the[ir] goodwill", even to be allowed to see the full text of Agagianian's pastoral letter.[29] Agagianian inaugurated the Armenian Catholic church in Anjar, Lebanon in 1954[30] and founded a boarding house for orphaned boys there.[31] He resigned the pastoral governance of the Armenian patriarchate on 25 August 1962, to focus on his duties at the Vatican.[1][19][32] Cardinal
As an Armenian we are very proud of what is happening. Growing up as a child we were always told that one day cardinal Agajanian would be a saint and it is happening God is good
Thank you Terry! Yes Huntington Beach I am always here learning and growing from you all, you are all wonderful. I am no where near as knowledgeable as all of you. Everyone here is in my daily prayers. Congratulations to your beautiful new grand babies. God bless you all
I was praying a lot to Cardinal Gregorio yesterday and last night. He has a such a beautiful face in death, it seems to shine. God is indeed made wonderful in his saints! A bright light in the darkness and such a gift. It would be wonderful to read a book about his life. It is not an accident that he was brought home to the Lebanon at this time. https://www.stjohnarmenianchurch.org/death-of-cardinal-gregorio-agagianian/ DEATH OF CARDINAL GREGORIO AGAGIANIAN May 16, 1971 Cardinal Gregorio Agagianian was the foremost Armenian figure of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century, and rose to world fame when in the papal elections of 1958 and 1963 he was about to become the first non-Italian head of the Church in almost 450 years. Ghazaros Agagianian was born in Akhaltsikhe, in the historical region of Javakhk (now in Georgia), on September 18, 1895. His family was part of the local Armenian Catholic community. After studying at the seminary of Tiflis, he went to Rome, where he studied at the Urban College of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (now Pontifical Urbaniana University) and was ordained a priest in 1917 with the name of Gregorio (Krikor). He returned to Tiflis, where he did pastoral work from 1917-1921. Afterwards, he left Soviet Georgia and became a member of the faculty at the Pontifical Armenian College in Rome in 1921 and Rector of the same college from 1932-1937. He also taught at the Urban College from 1922-1932. Meanwhile, he had been consecrated bishop on July 21, 1935, with a previous appointment as titular Bishop of Comana. The Armenian Synod elected him Patriarch Catholicos of the House of Cilicia on November 30, 1937, with the name of Krikor-Bedros XV. In 1938, after an agreement of the French colonial authorities of Syria and Turkey, the sanjak of Alexandretta (later renamed Hatay) was annexed to the latter. The efforts of the Armenian community of Paris, Patriarch Agagianian, and the Vatican representative to Syria and Lebanon Remi Leprert allowed that many areas of Kessab inhabited by Armenians remained in Syria. In recent years, the Syrian government renamed one of the streets of Aleppo after Cardinal Agagianian to honor his efforts. Agagianian was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Pius XII with the title of Cardinal-Priest of San Bartolomeo all’Isola in 1946. He participated in the papal conclave of 1958, following the death of Pius XII, and received a large number of votes, eventually approaching the majority needed for election. This was confirmed by Pope John XXIII, the elected pope. John XXIII appointed Cardinal Agagianian as a member of the leading body of the Second Vatican Council, where he was a member of the presidency board from 1963-1965. Agagianian was Pro-Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith from 1958-1960 and full Prefect from 1960-1970. In 1962 he resigned from his position of Armenian Catholic Patriarch. After the death of John XXIII, Agagianian participated in the conclave of 1963, which elected Pope Paul VI. He was rumored to have been actually elected, but declined to accept. In 1970 he was elevated to the order of Cardinal-Bishops as Cardinal-Bishop of Albano. Seven months after this elevation, Cardinal Gregorio Aghagianian passed away in Rome on May 16, 1971, aged 75, from cancer. He was buried at the Armenian church of San Nicola da Tolentino, the same place where he was consecrated bishop thirty-six years earlier.
