By Kevork Keushkerian
ALTADENA, Calif. — The Tekeyan Cultural Association (TCA) Pasadena-Glendale Chapter hosted a lecture on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Armenian printing. It took place on Sunday, March 4, at the Beshgeturian Center. Rev. Dr. Zaven Arzoumanian was the guest lecturer. Very Rev. Kegham Zakarian and George Mandossian, vice president of TCA’s Central Board of Directors, were among the attendees.
Kevork Keushkerian, who made the opening remarks, noted that a unique exhibition dedicated to the 500th anniversary of the first Armenian printed book will be held in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC for three months, starting in April. He then introduced Arzoumanian, who spoke next.
Arzaoumanian was born in Cairo, Egypt. In 1949, he went to the seminary of Antelias in Lebanon and was ordained a celibate priest in 1954. After serving in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for two years as the parish priest of the Armenian Church there, he went to London to further his studies.
Arzoumanian came to the United States in 1962 and served as parish priest in the Eastern Diocese for 40 years — first in Philadelphia and then in Boca Raton, Fla. He was then invited to the Western Diocese, where he served as the parish priest of St. Gregory Armenian Church in Pasadena for three years. He is now retired and lives with his wife, Joyce, in Glendale.
Arzoumanian received his doctorate in eastern languages and history from Columbia University in 1983. He is well known for publishing the History of the Armenian Church from 1900 to 1995. This is considered to be the continuation of Patriarch Malachia Ormanian’s famous Azkabadoum.
