Archbishop Papken Varjabedian, christened Armen, was born in 1918 in Aintab, Syria. His parents were devout Christians and dedicated Armenian educators, and young Armen began his education at the school in Aleppo which they established. He later attended the national Gratsiratz School, from which he graduated in 1932. From 1932 through 1936 he studied at the seminary of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, where Patriarch Torkom Koushagian ordained him as a deacon in 1936.

Dn. Armen Varjabedian continued his education from 1936 to 1939 at the American Theological Seminary of Beirut, Lebanon. He was ordained a celibate priest in 1941 at the St. Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral in Antelias, Lebanon (thus making him the first priest to be ordained in that newly constructed edifice) by Archbishop Yeghishe Garoyian, who gave him priestly name "Papekn" in memory of the late Catholicos of Cilicia, His Holiness Papken Gulesarian. Fr. Papken continued to serve the Catholicate of Cilicia as secretary of its Sunday schools, as a teacher at its seminary, and ultimately as staff bearer and private secretary to Catholicos Karekin I Hovsepian.

Fr. Papken arrived in the United States in 1946 at the invitation of Archbishop Tiran Nersoyan, and served as pastor of the St. Peter Church of Troy, New York, and the Holy Trinity Church of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During this period he received a degree in sacred theology from Berkeley Episcopal Divinity School. He returned briefly to Antelias in 1956 to serve as director of the Catholicate's Sunday schools.

In 1957, he was elected Primate of the Western Diocese of America, headquartered in California; that same year he was consecrated a bishop by His Holiness Vasken I, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians of blessed memory, in the Cathedral of Etchmiadzin. During his tenure as Primate, he began the expansion of the Western Diocese and various new parishes started to emerge.

In 1963 he returned to the Eastern Diocese to take up the pastorship of the St. Sahag and St. Mesrob Church of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. During this period, Catholicos Vasken I asked Bishop Papken to go on a special mission to Venezuela, to organize the South American diocese and keep it unified.

From 1969 to 1975 Bishop Papken served as pastor of the St. Mary Church of Washington, D.C. In February 1969, Archbishop Torkom Manoogian and the Diocesan Council appointed him as the Diocesan Legate in Washington, D.C. Serving in that capacity for more than a quarter-century, Bishop Papken tirelessly met with ecclesiastical, government, and diplomatic dignitaries, to inform them about the Armenian Church, the Armenian people, the Genocide, the earthquake of 1988, and the needs of the reborn republic.

In 1991, he was honored on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination. In recognition of his long and distinguished service as a clergyman of the Armenian Church, he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop by His Holiness Karekin I, of blessed memory, during the latter's first pontifical visit to North America in January of 1996.

In 2000, he was honored as the Diocesan "Man of the Year" during the Diocesan Assembly.

He passed away on July 25, 2000, after a long illness.