Overview

London's Disgraceful Vardapet uncovers the astonishing true story of Abel Abrahamian-later known as Nazarian-who arrived in London in 1919 as a brilliant and ambitious young vardapet (celibate priest). Bursting with energy and intellect, he played a pivotal role in founding St Sarkis, the city's first Armenian church, and stood alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Patriarch of Constantinople during a royal audience at Buckingham Palace. In the years following the Armenian Genocide, as global sympathy turned toward the suffering Armenian people, Abrahamian emerged as a compelling public voice and a rising star of the Armenian Church. But his meteoric ascent collapsed in scandal. In 1923, he fled London with a young mother-related to oil magnate Calouste Gulbenkian-shattering his vows and leaving the community in turmoil. The once-celebrated vardapet, now an adulterer and defector from holy orders, would soon collaborate with the Soviet secret police, aiding the very regime determined to crush the Church that had nurtured him. This book traces, for the first time, the extraordinary arc of his life: from a boyhood on the southern edge of the Russian Empire to his education at the Echmiadzin seminary and Europe's universities; from his dazzling yet brief chapter in London to his shadowed return to Soviet Armenia; and finally, to his re-emergence in Western Europe. London's Disgraceful Vardapet is a gripping biography of ambition, betrayal, and the turbulent politics of faith in the twentieth century.

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9781909382893

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