OAKLAND, Calif. — Rev. Krikor Zakaryan has been named parish priest for St. Vartan Armenian Apostolic Church. He arrives from St. Garabed Armenian Apostolic Church of the Desert in Rancho Mirage, where he served as parish priest for 10 years.
Zakaryan is no stranger to St. Vartan Church having served in Oakland for eight months as a deacon alongside the late, Rev. Mesrob Sarafian in 2009.
He was born in 1977 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria and received his primary education at the Dimitar Blagoev school there. He continued his education at the Victoria and Krikor Tutundjyan Armenian school, graduating in 1992. Between 1997 and 1999, he served in the Bulgarian army.
In 2003, he was admitted to the Alex and Marie Manoogian Seminary of the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem. His dedication to the seminary and his high marks earned Zakaryan numerous awards. He graduated in 2007. He received the rank of Fourth-Degree Acolyte of the Armenian Holy Apostolic Church from Archbishop Torkom Manoogian, the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem and was ordained to the Diaconate by Archbishop Nourhan Manougian.
On October 13, 2009, Zakaryan was ordained into the priesthood by Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America.
Zakaryan completed his Masters Degree in Theology in 2014 at the Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, and also completed a Youth Ministry Certificate program at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena in 2017.
