Aram I

Aram I has been the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church's Catholicosate of Cilicia since 1995.  As Catholicos, he oversees Armenian Orthodox believers outside Armenia.  Born in Lebanon, Aram studied in Lebanon, Switzerland, and the US.  Before becoming Catholicos, he served as Primate of Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War. A founding member of the Middle Eastern Council of Churches, Aram has continued the inter-Christian and interfaith dialogues as Catholicos.

Founded in 3o1, the Armenian Apostolic Church is the world's oldest national church. Doctrinal differences about Christ's nature caused the Armenian Church, among others, to diverge from Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy in 451. The Catholicosate of Cilicia is separate yet subordinate to the Mother See within Armenia. The Diaspora after the Armenian Genocide in the 1910s saw the Catholicosate of Cilicia increase in prominence outside the Soviet realm for fear of Soviet influence over the church.

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