CILICIA degli ARMENI. — Catholic patriarchate since 26 November 1742, when Benedict XIV confirmed Apraham Artzineam, a Catholic bishop elected katholikâ of Sis by an assembly of priests and laypeople desirous of forming an independent group separate from the dissident Armenians. The residence was established at Kraim, in Lebanon. Its jurisdiction extended over Syria and Egypt. Subsequently, it was extended to Mesopotamia (1760) and to Tokat and Perkemik, in Asia Minor (1769). The present residence of the patriarch of C. is at Bzommar, near Beirut. The patriarchate has 12,000 faithful, 6 parishes, and 31 priests.
BIBL.: F. Tournebize, Histoire politique et religieuse de l'Arménie, Paris 1907, p. 126 ff.; J. de Morgan, Histoire du peuple arménien depuis les temps les plus reculés de ses annales jusqu'à nos jours, Paris-Nancy 1919, p. 63 ff.; Ann. pontificio, 1949. Mariano Baffi