The Catholicos of All Armenians (Armenian: Ամենայն Հայոց Կաթողիկոս) is the chief bishop and spiritual leader of Armenia's national church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, and the worldwide Armenian diaspora. The Armenian Catholicos (plural Catholicoi) is also known as the Armenian Pontiff (Վեհափառ, Vehapar or Վեհափառ Հայրապետ, Vehapar Hayrapet) and by other titles. According to tradition, the apostles Saint Thaddeus and Saint Bartholomew brought Christianity to Armenia in the first century.[1]Saint Gregory the Illuminator became the first Catholicos of All Armenians following the nation's adoption of Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD. The seat of the Catholicos, and the spiritual and administrative headquarters of the Armenian Church, is the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, located in the city of Vagharshapat.
The Catholicos is often referred to both by the church and the media as the Armenian Pontiff.[2][3] Historically, the Catholicos was known in English and other languages as the Armenian Patriarch or the Patriarch of Armenia, and sometimes as the Patriarch of Etchmiadzin (or Echmiadzin) to distinguish from the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople and the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem.[4][5][6] To distinguish from the Catholicos (or Patriarch) of Cilicia, historically based in Sis and now in Lebanon, he may be referred to as the Catholicos of Etchmiadzin.[7][8] To underscore his supremacy over other patriarchs, the Catholicos is sometimes referred to in English as the Armenian Pope.[9]
^Tozer, Henry Fanshawe (1881). Turkish Armenia and Eastern Asia Minor. London: Longmans, Green, and Company. p. 161. ...confirmed by the patriarch of Etchmiadzin, who is the head of the whole Armenian community throughout the world.
^Barry, James (2018). Armenian Christians in Iran: Ethnicity, Religion, and Identity in the Islamic Republic. Cambridge University Press. p. 97. ISBN9781108429047. The Catholicos of Etchmiadzin is recognised as the overall head of the church (much like an Armenian "Pope")...
Laqueur, Walter (1956). Communism And Nationalism In The Middle East. London: Routledge. p. 233. ...on the "Armenian Pope," the Catholikos in Etchmiadzin, near Erivan.