Guregh Hovhannes Zohrabian

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Guregh Hovhannes Zohrabian OFMCap ( Armenian Հովհաննէս Զոհրաբիան (Գուրէղ) , Italian Cirillo Giovanni Zohrabian ; born June 25, 1881 in Erzurum , Turkey ; † September 20, 1972 in Rome ) was the Armenian Catholic auxiliary bishop in Cilicia . On December 14, 2001, Pope John Paul II announced the elevation of Zohrabian to venerable servant of God .

Life

Hovhannes Zohrabian was the fifth of eight children of the baker Vartan Zohrabian and his wife Sara, nee Hovhannessian. He grew up in the Armenian city of Erzurum and joined the Capuchins in Constantinople as a postulant in 1894 . He became a novice in 1898 . When making his profession , Hovhannes Zohrabian took the religious name Kyrill (Armenian Guregh ) and consecrated his life to St. Cyril of Saloniki . He studied philosophy and theology and was ordained a priest on June 12, 1904 .

Bishop Zohrabian was a participant in the four sessions of the Second Vatican Council . He was co- consecrator at:

Missionary work and imprisonment

After ordination of the Capuchin Order sent him to the mission on the Black Sea , he stayed until 1914 in his hometown of Erzurum. Here he had a church built, built an orphanage and, in addition to a primary school, also founded a grammar school . With the outbreak of World War I and the genocide of the Armenians that began in 1915 , he had to give up missionary work. The leadership of the order transferred him to the St. Joseph University in Kadiköy , a district of Constantinople, where he worked as a professor and chaplain . In November 1914, the university was closed by the Turkish rulers and the Armenian Catholic clergy were expelled from the country.

Zohrabian fled to the French University of St. Louis in Constantinople, but was picked up again in 1916 and interned . In the prison camp, he worried about Greek and Italian prisoners for the next four years. After his release in 1920, he continued with prison chaplaincy and was arrested again on March 7, 1923. A Turkish court sentenced him to death by hanging. He was next detained in a Constantinople prison and tortured several times. The death penalty has been lifted and made permanent expulsion.

Hovhannes Zohrabian fled to Rome . Finally, the Archbishop of Corfu Leonard Brindisi asked him to come to the island of Corfu , as many Armenian refugees had found refuge here. Zohrabian remained from 1923 to 1938 as a pastor for the Armenians in Corfu and in 1925 was appointed "Chaplain of all Armenians in Greece". The collaboration with the Greek Orthodox clergy turned out to be difficult and although he was doing successful missionary work - or because he was doing successful missionary work - he was hindered in his work by the Greek government. On October 26, 1936, he was expelled and had to leave Greece. With the appointment letter of November 21, 1938, the Patriarch of Cilicia Krikor Bedros XV appointed him . Agagianian as Patriarchal Vicar of the Jazira in Syria. In this office he was missionary from 1938 to 1953.

Auxiliary bishop

On August 29, 1940, Zohrabian was appointed auxiliary bishop in Cilicia, with the titular bishopric of Acilisene . The Patriarch of Cilicia, Archbishop Krikor Bedros XV. Agagianian, and the co-consecrators Archbishop Jean Naslian (former Archdiocese of Trabzon in Turkey) and Archbishop Jacques Nessimian ( Iskanderiya in Egypt ) consecrated him on October 27, 1940.

In the early days of his episcopate, Bishop Zohrabian made a name for himself as the founder of schools and as a youth minister . He exemplified charity and suffered from the final ban on returning to Turkey, which was pronounced in 1953. He carried out mission trips to the Armenian colonies in Europe and Latin America and wrote the memoirs of a missionary life in 1965 . He died on September 20, 1972 and found his final resting place in the Capuchin Crypt in Palermo .

Beatification process

The Archbishop of Palermo , Salvatore Cardinal Pappalardo , initiated the diocesan beatification process on March 23, 1983 . The hagiography produced was sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on March 22, 1985 . On February 14, 2001, Cirillo Giovanni Zohrabian - that is his Italian name - was made a venerable servant of God by Pope John Paul II.

See also

literature

  • Heinz Gstrein : 300 bastion blows for the bishop. Güregh Zohrabian 1881-1972, Armenian Catholic Capuchin missionary. Row: Missionaries Who Made History. St. Gabriel, St. Augustin, Steyler, Mödling 1984. ISBN 978-3-8526-4212-3

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Zohrabian, Guregh Hovhannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zohrabian, Cirillo Giovanni; Zohrabian, Cyril John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Auxiliary Bishop of the Armenian Catholic Church
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Erzurum , Turkey
DATE OF DEATH 20th September 1972
Place of death Rome