Grégoire-Pierre Agagianian

Krikor Bedros XV Aghajanian (Georgian: კრიკორ ბედროს აგაჯანიანი, Armenian: Գրիգոր Պետրոս ԺԵ. Աղաճանեան, French: Grégoire-Pierre XV Agagianian, Italian: Gregorio Pietro XV Agagianian) (September 18, 1895 – May 16, 1971) was a Cardinal and leader of the Armenian Catholic Church. He served as Armenian Catholic Patriarch of Cilicia from 1937 to 1962, and Prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in the Roman Curia from 1958 to 1970. Agagianian was elevated to the cardinalate in 1946 by Pope Pius XII.

Born in Akhaltsikhe (in modern Georgia), Agagianian studied at the seminary in Tbilisi and the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome. He was ordained as a priest on December 23, 1917. He entered the teaching Faculty of the Pontifical Armenian College in Rome in 1921; he was later Rector of the same college from 1932 to 1937.

Appointed Titular Bishop of Comana on July 11, 1935, he was elected Patriarch Catholicos of Cilicia of All the Armenians by the Armenian Synod, on November 30, 1937, with the name of Gregory Peter XV. On February 18, 1946 he was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Pius XII.

During the 1958 papal conclave following the death of Pius XII, Agagianian received a large number of votes, eventually approaching the majority needed for election. This was confirmed by the elected pope himself, Pope John XXIII.

John XXIII appointed Cardinal Agagianian to be a member of the leading body of the Second Vatican Council together with Cardinals Suenens, Döpfner and Lercaro. Agagianian was Pro-Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith from 1958 and full Prefect from July 18, 1960 to October 19, 1970. He died in Rome on May 16, 1971.

See also

• List of Armenian Catholic Patriarchs of Cilicia

External links

• Biography on official site of the Armenian Catholic Church