Bedros IV.

Bedros IV. Sarajian ( Armenian Պետրոս Դ Սարաճյան , * 1870 in Sivrihisar , † September 28, 1940 in Beirut ), was a bishop and in 1940 briefly " Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia " of the Armenian Apostolic Church .

Before becoming a Catholic, Sarajian worked as a prelate of the Armenians in Cyprus (1899–1905; 1921–1940) and 1910–1915 as archbishop of the city of Hadjin (today Saimbeyli ) in the Taurus Mountains . There he rebuilt the church buildings destroyed by the Armenian massacres in 1909 and rebuilt the orphanage. In 1915 he was deported with the Armenian population , but returned temporarily with a few thousand. In 1920 Kemalists conquered the city; only a few hundred Armenians escaped to Adana . The French troops in Kiliken, alerted by Bishop Sarajian, did not intervene. Subsequently, Bedros Sarajian worked again on the British island of Cyprus and, after the untimely death of the Catholicos coadjutor Papken I (1936), as vicar general of the very old Catholicos Sahag II in Antelias.

The Catholicos Bedros IV was granted a term of office of only four months: He was elected on May 30th, ordained a Catholicos on July 2nd, 1940 in Antelias and died on September 28th of the same year. After his death, the "Holy See of Cilicia" initially remained vacant until Karekin I could be elected in 1943 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Rose Lambert: Hadjin, and the Armenian Massacres. Fleming H. Revell, New York - London 1911.
2. ^ Bedros' work in Hadjin (with photos).

predecessor	Office	successor
Sahag II. / Papken I.	Catholicos of Cilicia 1940	Karekin I.