Vazgen I

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Vazgen I (Armenian: Վազգեն Ա, born Levon Garabed Baljian; September 20, 1908—August 18, 1994) was an Armenian cleric who served as the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church between 1955 and 1994 in one of the longest reigns of the Armenian Catholicoi.

Vazgen was born in Bucharest, Romania to a family belonging to the Armenian minority. During his long time as Catholicos, he managed to assert some independence for his church in face of the totalitarian Soviet rule in the Armenian SSR, and lived to see religious freedom restored under the national Armenian government in 1991.

From then on, he was very busy renewing ancient Armenian churches and reviving institutions of the church. He saved a number of church treasures by establishing the Alex Manoogian Museum of the Mother Church.

Vazgen intensified contacts with the Armenian Catholic Church, with the aim of reuniting both wings of Armenian Christianity.

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Preceded by:
George VI		 Catholicoi of the Holy See of St. Echmiadzin and All Armenians
1955–1994		 Succeeded by:
Karekin I
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