Bishop Daniel Findikyan
Primate of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America
Bishop Daniel Findikyan (baptismal name Michael) was born in Fort Worth, Texas, to Nurhan and Ursula Findikyan. Early on he studied chemical engineering; but he followed instead his spiritual calling to the priesthood, enrolling and graduating from St. Nersess Armenian Seminary in New York. While studying at the seminary, he earned a master’s degree in musicology at City University of New York.
In 1997, he received a doctorate degree in liturgy from the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome․
Bishop Daniel’s doctoral thesis dealt with the history of the daily services of the Armenian Church, comparing them with the liturgical traditions of other Eastern churches.
Ordained as a celibate priest by Archbishop Khajag Barsamian in 1997, and given the priestly name “Daniel,” he served as dean of St. Nersess Seminary until 2012. During that period he also served as a visiting pastor to the St. Sarkis Church of Charlotte, North Carolina.
In November 2012, he was appointed the director of the Eastern Diocese’s Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center, and subsequently also became a visiting professor of liturgy at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. Bishop Daniel is a member of several scholarly and ecumenical associations.
In May 2018, while still a vartabed, Fr. Daniel was elected as the Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern). Father Daniel began his service as the 12th Primate of the Diocese, following the 28 years of service of His Eminence Archbishop Khajag Barsamian.
He was elevated to the rank of bishop by the hand of His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, on May 12, 2019, in a ceremony at Holy Etchmiadzin in the Republic of Armenia.
He is the author of numerous articles in scholarly journals, and served as the general editor of the Divine Liturgy (published in 1999 ), which is used throughout the Eastern Diocese and the English-speaking world.
