BISHOP ARISTAKES SEDRAKYAN

1881-1889 (Years of Leadership)

Aristakes Sedrakyan (Melik-Arakelyan) was born on August 23, 1845 in Khalfalu village of Yerevan province. His father’s name was Sedrak.

From 1869-1882, he served as the Abbot of the Monastery of Surb Karapet (Saint Karapet, Yernjak) and the Monastery of Surb Gayane (Saint Gayane, Etchmiadzin).

From 1874 to 1876, Bishop Aristakes Sedrakyan (Melik-Arakelyan) served as a lecturer in the Gevorkian Theological Seminary of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. From 1891 to 1893, he was administering the same Seminary. Bishop Aristakes Sedrakyan (Melik-Arakelyan) served as the Head of the Diocese in Tatev, Artsakh, Georgia, Imereti, and Astrakhan.

In 1894, he published the “Biography of Bishop Hovhannes Shakhatunynts”. He is the author of several important works relating to the history and theology of the Armenian Church. Worthy of  mention are such as the first part of the vast work “Pictography of the Armenian Church”, published in 1904 in St. Petersburg (the second part was not published), as well as “Marital problems” (1891), “Tasks for Priests”(1900). He also authored many translations and other unpublished work.

Bishop Aristakes Sedrakyan died on 10 November 1906 in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. (Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia, v. 10).