Born in Cairo Egypt on the 17th January 1940
He is the 5th of a family of 8 children.
He completed his primary and secondary studies at the College of the "Brothers of Christian Schools" (Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes) in Cairo.
He felt the vocation to priesthood very early in life and thus was sent to the "Armenian Leonian Pontifical College of Rome" in 1958 where he studied Philosophy and Theology at the "Pontifical Gregorian University".
His Bishop Msgr. Raphael Bayan ordained him priest in Cairo on The 15th August 1965.
He served the parish of the Catholic Armenian Cathedral of the Annunciation in Cairo from 1965 to 1968 with the Rev. Father Jean Kasparian who became Patriarch Catholicos under the name of Jean Pierre XVIII in 1982.
From 1968 to 1990 he was curate of the parish of St. Therese of Heliopolis (Cairo) where he encouraged the various religious movements, especially the Neo-Catechumenal Way.
On the 18th February 1990, he was ordained bishop of the Eparchy (Diocese) of Alexandria for Egypt and Sudan by the imposition of the hands of His Beatitude Jean Pierre XVIII.
During six years, from 1992 to 1997, as member of the Catholic Hierarchy of Egypt, he was the General Secretary of the Pastoral Council of the Catholic Church of Egypt.
As a member of the Synod of the Bishops of the Catholic Armenian Patriarch Church, he was successful in being:
Member of the Council of the three Bishops to direct the Patriarchal Curie from 1993 to 1995.· President of the Patriarchal Commission for the Vocations from 1993 to 1995.
Member of the Permanent Synod as of 1994.
In October 1999, he was elected by the Bishops of the Holy Synod of the Catholic Armenian Synod, Patriarch Catholicos of Cilice for the Catholic Armenians and took the name of Nerses Bedros XIX.
Born on January 20 1927.
He attended his first studies in Cairo in 1943.
He integrated the seminary of Bzoummar in Lebanon where he finished his secondary studies in 1946.
He was sent to the Papal College of Rome where he studied Theology and Philosophy at the Gregorian University.
Ordained priest on April 13, 1952.
He obtained his doctorate in Cannon Law at the University of Latran.
1957-1972 He was elected Vice-Director at the Seminary of Bzoummar, thereafter, he was sent to his native land, Egypt, where he created numerous activities especially for the youth.
December 9, 1972 he was elected Archbishop of Baghdad and was later appointed Bishop of Beirut on February 25, 1973.
August 25, 1982, the Synod of Catholic Armenian Bishops, convened in Rome, designated him Catholicos-patriarch of Catholic Armenians. His enthronement was achieved September 12th on the feast of the Holy Cross.
His Beatitude speaks several languages including Armenian, Arabic, Turkish, French, Italian, Spanish, Latin and English.
His eleven years in power confronted him to new administrative, pastoral and organizational data, motivated by the great socio-regional geopolitic changes that began by the awakening of the Arab nationalism, by the war of Lebanon, that urged the Armenian masses, as many other Lebanese, to emigrate toward America, Canada, Australia thereby creating a larger Diaspora.
These new data shook the organic balance of the Armenian Catholicism, whose neuralgic center remains Lebanon and its natural perimeter the Middle East.
The independence of Armenia from the Communist yoke, its return to the religious liberties, the urgence of the reactivation in Armenia of the ancient parishes Armenian Catholics, submissive to 70 years of atheistic propaganda, put serious problems of evangelism, aggravated by the ministerial vocation crisis.
This recall of urgencies, claiming immediate solutions, testifies, if need be, of the actuality of the Armenian Catholic Patriarchate after its 250 years of existence.
