ARCHBISHOP NERSES POZAPALIAN DIES

Noyan Tapan
June 29, 2009

ETCHMIADZIN, JUNE 29, NOYAN TAPAN. His Grace Archbishop Nerses
Pozapalian, a devoted and worthy priest of the Armenian Apostolic
Church, passed away at Nairi Medical Center on the morning of June
27. He was 72.

To recap, on February 18 Archbishop Pozapalian was attacked by
an unknown person in his monastic room at the Mother See of Holy
Etchmiadzin, as a result of which he received a severe injury and
was taken to hospital in an unconscious state. According to the
Information System of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, from that
incident till his death, Archbishop Pozapalian was under a good care
of the center’s doctors.

A divine liturgy will be served at Holy Marturs Church (Kotayk marz)
built by Archbishop Pozapalian, on June 30. His funeral will take
place in the church yeard.

Archbishop Nerses Pozapalian was born in 1937 in Gregkhan,
Cilicia. In 1939 his family moved to Beirut where he received his
primary education. In 1957 the Pozapalians came to homeland where he
continued his studies at the Gevorgian Theological Seminary of the
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.

In 1961 Pozapalian was ordained as a celibate priest by the Catholicos
of All Armenians Vazgen I.

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his religious activities,
Holy Marturs Church in memory of his parents Grigor and Makruhi
Pozapalians was built in the village of Teghenik in Kotayk marz in
2000-2003. His Holiness the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II
awarded a Surb Grigor Lusavorich Order to him on the same occasion.

Archbishop Nerses Pozapalian published 10 books of poetry and
sermons and was a lecturer at the Gevorgian Theological Seminary
in Etchmiadzin.

In 2000-2006 Archbishop Pozapalian was Director of the Publishing
Department of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress