Death of Archbishop Vramshabouh Kibarian (January 2, 1940)

First as a married priest and then as a celibate cleric, Archbishop Vramshabouh Kibarian was a humble, devoted servant of the Armenian Church.

He was born Nazareth Kibarian on November 24, 1855, in Şhabin Karahisar. He was the youngest of six children. His father, a modest craftsman and merchant, entrusted him to the Armenian Apostolic Church when he was ten years old. He rose through the ranks of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, reaching the position of archdeacon. He became a schoolteacher, and Antranig Ozanian, the future Armenian national hero, was among his students. During this same period, he married Takuhi Margossian, with whom he had five children, and was ordained a priest in Sepastia with the name of Vramshabouh. He returned to his hometown, but the Armenian quarters were destroyed by fire in 1885. He was then sent to Constantinople and Smyrna to raise funds to finance to rebuild the cathedral. The Ottoman authorities did not allow him to return, and he was forced to settle in Constantinople, where he was appointed pastor of the Surp Takavor Church in the Kadıköy district and also taught Armenian, catechism, and ethics at the Aramian School. He managed to bring his family to the Ottoman capital, but his wife died in 1894, forcing him to send his children back to his relatives in the provinces.

In 1899, Rev. Fr.  Vramshabouh Kibarian was appointed pastor to the Armenian community of Paris by Patriarch Maghakia Ormanian of Constantinople. He played a key role in the construction of the St. John the Baptist Armenian Cathedral in Paris. Catholicos Mkrtich I Khrimian raised him to the rank of archpriest. During World War I, the French authorities monitored the Armenians of Paris, who were subjects of the Ottoman Empire, an enemy of France, and viewed them with suspicion. Along with Arshag Tchobanian, Fr. Vramshabouh did everything possible to convince the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the Armenians were friends of France. In May 1919, he was ordained vartabed (celibate priest) by Archbishop Yeghishe Tourian, who was then in Paris as part of the Armenian National Delegation to the Peace Conference. With the arrival in the French capital of Armenian refugees fleeing the Genocide in the 1920s, he dedicated his efforts to meeting their needs.

In 1926, he traveled to Etchmiadzin, where Catholicos Gevorg V Sureniants consecrated him bishop. However, he fractured his right femur during his stay and remained bedridden for six months. He returned to France at the end of 1927. Towards the end of his life, Bishop Vramshabouh Kibarian was elevated to the rank of archbishop. He died on January 2, 1940, in Boulogne-Billancourt and was buried in the cemetery of Père Lachaise.