Fast Facts About the Catholicate of All Armenians –The See of Holy Etchmiadzin

The Catholicate of All Armenians, the administrative center of the Armenian Church, is located at the Holy See of Etchmiadzin, home to the Brotherhood of Holy Etchmiadzin which participates in the operation of the catholicate.

The See of Holy Etchmiadzin is in the town of Etchmiadzin, thirteen miles to the west of Yerevan, the capital of the Republic of Armenia.

Our catholicos today is His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians

Also in Armenia, the Holy See runs two seminaries in Sevan and Shirak, active centers for youth at various sites, the center for Christian education and a number of monastic complexes.

The Catholicos of All Armenians, as the Supreme Patriarch and the administrative head of the Armenian Church, is elected by the National-Ecclesiastical Assembly, the highest body in the church consisting of clerical as well as lay representatives from all the jurisdictions of the Armenian Church.

The Catholicos of All Armenians oversees the operation of the entire church and gives frequent directives to the primates concerning doctrinal, administrative, ecumenical and Armenian issues of an international scale.

The Catholicos of All Armenians is assisted in administering his responsibilities by the Supreme Spiritual Council, which is elected by the National-Ecclesiastical Assembly.

The Catholicos of All Armenians also convenes all of his patriarchs, archbishops and bishops for consultation. The Armenian Church does not have, and has never had, an official synod or conclave of bishops. The bishops’ meetings are mere consultations.

The Catholicate of All Armenians extends its jurisdiction over the patriarchates of Jerusalem and Constantinople (Istanbul) and all the dioceses throughout the world, save those that are subject to the Catholicate of the Great House of Cilicia.

The two patriarchs and all the primates as well as bishops at large, except for the ones under the Cilician catholicate, are ipso facto members of the Brotherhood of Holy Etchmiadzin.

Once every seven years the Catholicos of All Armenians blesses the Holy Myron (myooron). Bishops use the Holy Myron to anoint new churches, altars, crosses and holy pictures as well as the foreheads and hands of those who are ordained as priests. Our priests anoint the newly baptized with it and pour it into the water in the baptismal font.

Besides ordaining bishops, and blessing and providing Holy Myron to all the diocesan jurisdictions, the Holy See reaches out to the Diaspora by providing priests for our parishes.