On behalf of Most Rev. Archbishop Kevork Noradounguian, we express our deepest condolences on the sad occasion of the passing of Very Rev. Fr. Joseph Kelekian, Mitred Supreme Archimandrite, member of the Congregation of Bzommar and former pastor of the Armenian Catholic Cathedral of Paris. The Very Reverend Father passed away in the Lord on Monday, September 28, 2026.<\/p>\n
Born in Lebanon in 1950, Very Rev. Fr. Joseph Kelekian was a child of Armenian Genocide survivors. He spent his childhood and received his primary education in Lebanon. After studying theology and canon law in Rome, he was ordained a celibate priest in 1973. From 1973 to 1978, he served as associate pastor at the Annunciation Church in Geitawi, Lebanon, and from 1978 to 1990 as Vice-Rector and subsequently Rector of St. Michael’s Seminary of the Bzommar Monastery in Lebanon. From 1984 to 1986, he was the Superior and teacher of Most Rev. Archbishop K\u00e9vork Noradounguian. From 1990 to 2007, he served as pastor of the Holy Cross Armenian Catholic Cathedral in Paris.<\/p>\n
From 2007 to 2010, Fr. Joseph served as Rector of the Pontifical Armenian College (Levonian) in Rome. In 2010\u20132011, he served in Armenia as pastor of the Armenian Catholics in Tashir. In 2011, he was elevated to the rank of Mitred Supreme Archimandrite, and from 2011 to 2013, served as Patriarchal Vicar of Jerusalem and Jordan. In 2013, he became pastor of the Armenian Catholic community of Lyon, and from 2014 to 2024, served as Vicar of the Armenian Catholic Eparchy of France. Since 2024, due to illness, Fr. Joseph had been residing at the Armenian nursing home near Paris.<\/p>\n
Fr. Joseph was a member of the Bzommar Congregation, a learned clergyman, and a great scholar and devotee of Armenian history and culture. His beautiful, uplifting voice was well known across all the Armenian Catholic communities where he served; with great artistry and a prayerful spirit, he sang Armenian sharagans (hymns) and folk songs. He also recorded the priest’s chant parts for the Holy Divine Liturgy. Fr. Kelekian appeared regularly on the Chr\u00e9tiens Orientaux (Eastern Christians) program on the France 2 television channel.<\/p>\n
We extend our heartfelt condolences to His Excellency Bishop \u00c9lie Y\u00e9ghiayan, Bishop of the Armenian Catholic Eparchy of France, to all eparchial clergy, the fathers of the Bzommar Congregation, the faithful of the Armenian Catholic Eparchy of France, and the Kelekian family.<\/p>\n
We raise our prayers of thanksgiving to God for the great gift of the life and God-pleasing ministry of Very Rev. Fr. Joseph Kelekian.<\/p>\n
May the memory of the righteous be blessed.<\/p>\n
Chancery of the Ordinariate for Armenian Catholics in Armenia, Georgia, Russia, and Eastern Europe
\nSeptember 29, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
May the memory of the righteous be blessed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,36,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-en","category-news-en","category-universal-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28108"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28114,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28108\/revisions\/28114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}