HASSUN, ANTONIO. — Cardinal and Catholic Armenian patriarch of Cilicia from 1866 to 1880, born in Constantinople on 1 June 1809, died in Rome on 28 February 1884. In 1825 he went to Rome and was able to enter the Collegio Urbano. In 1833, having been ordained a priest, he returned to his homeland.
In 1842 he was consecrated coadjutor bishop cum iure successionis of the primate of Constantinople, Mgr Marusci. When the latter died in 1846, H. had himself proclaimed primate, not without astonishing the public, which until then had exercised the privilege of presenting three candidates to the Holy See. H. erected various churches and founded the Congregation of the Armenian Sisters of the Immaculate Conception.
The episcopal Synod of the patriarchate of Cilicia, presided over by Mgr Valerga, elected H. as successor to Gregory Peter VII on 14 September 1866, after expressing the desire to see the two sees, patriarchal and primatial, united in the person of H., who put into practice the apostolic constitution Reversurus of 12 July 1867.
Nevertheless, the reforms introduced by it against certain traditional rights, especially in the electoral discipline of bishops, led to the intensification of old animosities between the “Hassunists” and the “Anti-Hassunists,” and divided the Armenian Catholic clergy and people; the Anti-Hassunists became true schismatics, the “Eastern Catholics” (3 April 1870), headed by bishops and clergy. The churches, schools, and charitable institutions became objects of dispute.
The Pope’s excommunication on 14 June 1872 provoked, as a reaction, H.’s exile by the Turkish government. H. embarked for Rome in 1872. In 1874, following France’s intervention, the Hassunists were granted the right to organize themselves as a distinct community. The schism continued until the conciliatory work of the apostolic delegate, Mgr V. VANNUTELLI, VINCENZO, who succeeded in winning over the leaders. The last of them, Mgr Kupelean, was publicly reconciled before Leo XIII (18 April 1879), who appointed him ordaining bishop in Rome. In 1880 H. was invited to Rome and shortly thereafter created a cardinal; he was succeeded by Mgr Azarean, his vicar.
BOBL.: Mansi, XL, cols. 745–1132; Acta Pii IX, part 1ª, vol. VI, pp. 33–35, Rome 1874; R. de Martinis, Juris Pont., part 1ª, t. VI, Rome 1904, pp. 459–65; J. B. Asgian, Les Patriarches arméniens catholiques, Card. H. et Mgr. Azarian, in Terre Sainte, 1900–1901; Fr. Tournebize, Arménie, in DHC, cols. 340–42. Garabed Amaduni