BEIRUT, Lebanon—The Armenian Catholic Patriarch of Cilicia His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX passed away on June 25 after suffering a heart attack, reported Lebanon’s The Daily Star.
Armenian Catholic Patriarch of Cilicia Nerses Bedros XIX and Pope Francis (Photo: L’Osservatore Romano)
Born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1940, His Beatitude was ordained priest in 1965 by His Excellency Msgr. Raphael Bayan. He served the parish of the Armenian Catholic Cathedral in Cairo from 1965 to 1968 with the Rev. Father Hovhannes Kasparian, who became Catholicos Patriarch under the name of Hovhannes Bedros XVIII in 1982.
From 1968 to 1990, Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX served as the pastor of the parish of Heliopolis (Cairo), and was consecrated Bishop of the Eparchy of Alexandria for the Armenian Catholics of Egypt and Sudan in 1990. From 1992 to 1997, he occupied the position of Secretary General of the Pastoral Council of the Catholic Church of Egypt.
On Oct. 7, 1999, he was elected Catholicos Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenian Catholics by the Bishops of the Saint Synod of the Armenian Catholic Church. He was named Nerses Bedros XIX, and was enthroned on Oct. 24 the same year. He received the Ecclesiastical Communion from His Holiness Pope John Paul II on Dec. 13, 1999.
His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX participated in and offered his remarks during the historic Mass held by Pope Francis for the Centenary of the Armenian Genocide on April 12.
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