Congressional Record
June 14, 2005 (Extensions)]

HONORING HIS HOLINESS
KAREKIN II

HON. GEORGE RADANOVICH

of california

in the house of representatives

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Mr. RADANOVICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor His Holiness Karekin II,
the Supreme Patriarch-Catholicos of All Armenians and universal head of
the Armenian Apostolic (Orthodox) Church, upon his visit to the San
Joaquin Valley. An event to celebrate his pastoral visit will occur on
June 12, 2005 in Fresno, CA.
His Holiness Karekin II, baptized Ktrij Nersissian, was born in 1951
in the village of Voskehat in the former Soviet Republic of Armenia. In
1965, he entered the Theological Seminary of the Mother See of Holy
Etchmiadzin and graduated with honors in 1971. Upon graduation from the
seminary, he was ordained a celibate priest, taking the religious name
Karekin.
Father Karekin then graduated from Bonn University in Germany while
serving as pastor to the local Armenian community. He earned a
postgraduate degree from the Russian Orthodox Academy in Zagorsk,
Russia in 1979.
In 1980 he was assigned to the Araratian Pontifical Diocese, the
Armenian Church’s most populous diocese, which includes Yerevan, the
capital of Armenia. In 1983, he was appointed primate of the Araratian
Pontifical Diocese, and was elevated to the rank of Bishop and
subsequently to Archbishop.
His Holiness was elected as the 132nd Supreme Patriarch and
Catholicos of All Armenians on October 27, 1999 by delegates from
Armenian Churches worldwide at a National Ecclesiastical Assembly, in
the Republic of Armenia.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme
Patriarch-Catholicos of All Armenians and universal head of the
Armenian Apostolic (Orthodox) Church, upon his pastoral visit to the
San Joaquin Valley. I invite my colleagues to join me in thanking the
religious patriarch for his dedication to the service of all Armenians.