Patriarch of Cilicia (Armenian)
Biography: He was born on October 24, 1946. In 1958, he was admitted to the seminary of the Patriarchal Congregation of Bzommar, where he received his advanced secondary education. In 1966, he was sent to the Pontifical Leonine Armenian College in Rome and studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University, earning degrees in philosophy and theology. He continued his studies at the Salesian University in Rome, specializing in practical psychology. On June 24, 1973, he was ordained a celibate priest in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. Until 1980, he served as the pastor of the Cathedral of Saint Gregory the Illuminator and Saint Elijah in Beirut. In 1978, he was appointed secretary of the Armenian Catholic ecclesiastical tribunal in Lebanon, and subsequently served as an ecclesiastical judge until 1989. From 1980 to 1984, he taught liturgy at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik in Beirut. From 1983 to 1986, he served as the parish priest of the Holy Cross Church in Zalka (Lebanon); indeed, it was through his efforts that the Holy Cross Church in Zalka was built. From 1986 to 1988, he served as Patriarchal Secretary. From 1988 to 1990, he was once again appointed parish priest of the Holy Cross Church in Zalka, while simultaneously serving as the principal of the newly built patriarchal school. From 1990 to 2006, he served as parish priest in the U.S. state of California. He was one of the key founding members of the "Armenian Alliance" charitable foundation, under whose auspices numerous humanitarian and charitable projects were implemented in Armenia. Father Raphael Minassian initiated the construction of the Saint Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Catholic Church in Glendale; its consecration took place in 2001, commemorating the 1700th (1700) anniversary of the adoption of Christianity in Armenia. In 2005... In September, His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX, Catholicos-Patriarch, appointed Fr. Raphael Minassian as Patriarchal Exarch for Jerusalem and Amman. In 2005, he founded the "Telepace Armenia" television station in Italy. In 2009, at the Fourth Station of the Way of the Cross located within the Armenian Catholic complex in Jerusalem, Father Raphael established perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the continuity of which is ensured by the Sisters of the Congregation of Saint Paul. On June 24, 2011, by a special papal bull from Pope Benedict XVI, Fr. Raphael Minassian was elevated to the episcopacy as the Titular Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia for the Armenians and as the Ordinary for Armenian Catholics in Armenia, Georgia, Russia, and Eastern Europe. His episcopal ordination took place on July 16, 2011, at the Cathedral of Saint Gregory the Illuminator and Saint Elijah in Beirut, administered by His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX. ...Catholicos-Patriarch, in the presence of His Eminence Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Oriental Churches. On August 7, 2011, the enthronement ceremony of Archbishop Raphael Minassian took place at the St. Gregory the Illuminator Church in the village of Arevik, in the Shirak region. On September 23, 2021, Archbishop Raphael Minassian became the twenty-first Catholicos-Patriarch of the Armenian Catholic Church of Cilicia, assuming the name Raphael Bedros XXI Minassian.