His lifelong, passionate interests in Christian spirituality, service to the Armenian people, and humble dedication to Jesus Christ have led Bishop Mesrop Parsamyan on a remarkable journey to his present role as Primate of one of the world’s largest Armenian Church dioceses.

A native of Yerevan, Armenia, he was born on May 15, 1981, to Mihran and Manya Parsamyan, and baptized with the name “Aram.”Early on he felt a religious calling, and enrolled at the Vaskenian Seminary (1997-2002) in Armenia’s Lake Sevan region, from which he graduated with honors. His ordination as a deacon on December 25, 2001, by Bishop Mikael Ajapahyan, marked the beginning of his religious vocation.

The young Deacon Aram Parsamyan went on to attended Gevorgian Theological Seminary of Holy Etchmiadzin, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in Theology in 2003. He was ordained into the holy priesthood that same year, on August 31, by the hand of Archbishop Shahan Svajiyan at the Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin. He took vows in the celibate order and received the priestly name “Mesrop”; thereafter, until 2004, he served as the staff-bearer for His Holiness Karekin II, the Catholicos of All Armenians.

A period of educational advancement in prestigious European centers followed for the new Fr. Mesrop. He earned a Master’s degree in Theology and Religious Sciences from the University of Strasbourg, France (2004-2007), and studied in Dublin, Ireland, at the International Study Centre (2005).

Returning to Gevorgian Seminary as a professor from 2007 to 2011, Fr. Mesrop taught Christian Ethics and simultaneously served as deputy-chancellor of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. During this period, he had two pastoral stays in Brussels, Belgium, and in Nice, France.
In 2011 he received his Archimandrite (Vardapet) rank—the doctoral degree of the Armenian Church—on the basis of his dissertation on the concept of “theosis” in the writings of St. Nersess Shnorhali. The degree was conferred by Bishop Anushavan Zhamkochyan at St. Mesrop Church in Oshakan, Armenia.

He went on to serve the Armenian Church Diocese in Geneva, Switzerland, as its Locum Tenens Primate. He was Vicar General of the Armenian Diocese of Marseille, France, from 2012 to 2013, and the following year served in Paris as Locum Tenens Primate of the Armenian Diocese of France.
Throughout his ministry in Europe (2007-2014), Fr. Mesrop was member of the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches.

Fr. Mesrop Parsamyan came to the United States in 2015, and took up the pastorship of Holy Shoghagat Church in Belleville, IL, for a period of two years. In 2017 he accepted a position at the Diocesan Center in New York City as its Director of Ministries. He was appointed as Vicar of St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral in 2018.

In the autumn of 2019, Fr. Parsamyan answered the call of His Holiness Karekin II, to return to the Mother See and take up a new role as Dean of Gevorgian Seminary. He led the seminary through Armenia’s ensuing years of trial and affliction—including the COVIDpandemic, and the Artsakh war of 2020—before completing his mission for His Holiness, returning to the U.S. in late 2021, to serve the Eastern Diocese again as its Director of Ministries.

His election as Primate took place during the 120th Diocesan Assembly, meeting in New York City and online, on Friday, May 6, 2022. With the blessing and confirmation of His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, Fr. Parsamyan assumed the office of the 13th Diocesan Primate on May 17, 2022.

However, the promise of this new era seemed in jeopardy a mere two months later, when the Diocese announced the grave news that Fr. Mesrop had been injured in an automobile accident, suffering serious damage to both his legs. The outpouring of concern, affection, and prayer from people around the world was touching to behold. But bythe grace of God—and thanks to expert care from medical professionals, and Fr. Mesrop’s own faithful conviction—the Primate was walking again by early 2023, and later that year celebrated the Easter Divine Liturgy on the altar of St. Vartan Cathedral.

That same spirit of forward momentum would become a hallmark of the Primate’s subsequent leadership, as he eagerly embarked on a schedule of personal visits to parishes across the Diocese, and laid plans to invigorate the ministries, outreach, and administration of the Diocese as a whole. Recent months have seen him inaugurate a pastoral plan for the Eastern Diocese, titled “Growing In Faith Together” (GIFT); launch an ongoing celebration of the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Armenian Church’s Diocese inAmerica; and move forward, with a team of experts and Diocesan leaders, on an ambitious project to repair and restore the Diocese’s “mother sanctuary,” New York’s St. Vartan Cathedral.

In his role as a community leader, the Primate has reached out broadly to all segments of the Armenian American public. Throughout the tragic crisis of Artsakh, he has summoned the faithful to solidarity and an active compassionate response—especially in the wake of the exodus of Artsakh’s Armenian population to resettle as refugees in the Republic of Armenia.

On October 8, 2023, Fr. Mesrop was consecrated as a bishop by the hand of Catholicos Karekin II, at Holy Etchmiadzin. By theappointment of Catholicos, Bishop Mesrop serves on the Supreme Spiritual Council, alongside other leaders of the worldwide Armenian Church. Bishop Mesrop Parsamyan is proficient in Armenian, English, French, and Russian, reflecting his commitment to cross-cultural understanding and international communication.

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A select bibliography of Bishop Mesrop’s writings:

“Semantic Interpretations of Krapar [Classical Armenian] Prepositions in Yeghishe’s Vardan and the Armenian War” (Academic thesis, 2003).

“Towards a Theology of Culture: An Analysis of ‘Light of Faith’ and ‘Figure of Revelation’ in Hans Urs von Balthasar’s The Glory of the Lord (Vol. I): Seeing the Form” (Master’s thesis, 2007).

“Being God: The Three-Fold Way of the Deification of Man,According to the Spirituality of St. Nersess Shnorhali.” (Vartabedagandoctoral thesis, 2011; published by the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, 2015.)

“Light and Hope: Spiritual Reflections,” Yerevan, 2021