BISHOP DANIEL FINDIKYAN

"The Holy Translators: Christ in a New Key"

Presentation on Saturday, October 9 at 10:00 AM

Bishop Daniel Findikyan was born in Fort Worth, Texas, to Nurhan and Ursula Findikyan, who baptized their son with the name Michael. Early on he studied chemical engineering; but he followed instead his spiritual calling to the priesthood, enrolling and graduating from St. Nersess Armenian Seminary in New York. While studying at the seminary, he earned a master’s degree in musicology at City University of New York.

After a year sojourn in Armenia, he studied for five years in Italy. In 1997, he received a doctorate degree in liturgy from the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, a renowned institute dedicated to the study of the history, theology, liturgy, and spirituality of the ancient Eastern churches. Bishop Daniel’s doctoral thesis dealt compared the daily services of the Armenian Church with the liturgical traditions of other Eastern churches.

Ordained as a celibate priest by Archbishop Barsamian in 1997, and given the priestly name “Daniel,” he served as dean of St. Nersess Seminary until 2012. During that period he also served as a visiting pastor to the St. Sarkis Church of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Bishop Daniel is a member of several scholarly and ecumenical associations, has authored numerous academic and popular articles, and was the general editor of the Divine Liturgy pew book used throughout the English-speaking world.

In November 2012, he became director of the Eastern Diocese’s Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center, and subsequently also became a visiting professor of liturgy at Notre Dame University, and at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome.

In May 2018, while still a vartabed, Fr. Daniel was elected as the Primate of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America. He was elevated to the rank of bishop by the hand of His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, on May 12, 2019, in a ceremony at Holy Etchmiadzin in the Republic of Armenia. His consecration as a bishop makes him only the second American-born clergyman to attain that rank—and is an occasion for great joy for the faithful of the Diocese he leads.