His Eminence Archbishop Anoushavan, Prelate, and the Religious and Lay Councils have learned with sorrow that Very Rev. Fr. Yeghishe Manjikian passed away on Wednesday, February 21, at the age of 82.
He was born in the Karaduran village of Kesab, the oldest Armenian region in Syria, in 1942. His lay name was Ara. At a young age, he moved with his family to Bourj Hammoud, the Armenian district of Beirut, Lebanon, where he received his elementary education at Forty Martyrs Armenian School. After receiving his education at the Seminary of the Catholicosate of Cilicia (1956-1963), Fr. Yeghishe was ordained a celibate priest in 1963 by the Archbishop Hrant Khachatourian, then Prelate of the United States.
In the 1960s and 2000s, he held various teaching and administrative positions in the Catholicosate and the Seminary. He has also taught in New Julfa, Iran. He studied oriental studies at Columbia University. He held pastoral positions in California (1976-1983), Cyprus (Catholicosal Vicar, 1983-1997), Canada (1997-2000), the Eastern United States (North Andover, 2000-2003) and Iran (2010-2011). A prolific author, he penned several books, including his doctoral thesis about Hovhannes Odznetsi, “Spiritual Cable Car,” a volume on Sahag Bartev, a prayer book and titles devoted to religious and educational themes.
The Prelate remembers with gratitude Fr. Yeghishe, his first teacher of Classical Armenian at the Seminary in 1963.