Aoun invited to canonization ceremony of Armenian Bishop Maloyan

BEIRUT — The Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenian Catholics, Raphaël Bedros XXI Minassian, conveyed to President Joseph Aoun an official invitation to attend the canonization ceremony of Bishop Ignace Maloyan in the Vatican on Oct. 19, according to a statement released by the Lebanese Presidency.

Mgr Ignace Shoukrallah Maloyan, a former Armenian Catholic archbishop of Mardin (Turkey), was killed by Ottoman forces in Istanbul on June 11, 1915, during the Armenian Genocide, along with other religious figures and is considered one of the most significant figures in the Eastern Armenian Church.

Maloyan's canonization will be presided over by Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican and was approved by Pope Francis following an ordinary session of cardinals and bishops in late March.

Maloyan spent the early years of his priesthood in Lebanon, where he was sent to the Bzoummar convent in Keserwan at the age of 14. He stayed in this convent for nearly 15 years, eventually becoming a member of the Institute of Bzoummar, before being appointed in 1897 as the priest of the parish of Alexandria and Cairo.