NAHAPET of EDESSA. - Armenian Katholikós of Echmiadzin (1691-1704).
On 5 Sept. 1695 he sent a profession of Catholic faith to Innocent XII. He encouraged the initiatives for the union of the Armenian Church with Rome promoted by European and Armenian missionaries, and by Innocent XII’s legate, Pierre-Paul Bapaume, titular archbishop of Ancyra. Many Armenians, together with N., were disposed to sign the conditions laid down by the Pope for such a union. But the opposing faction, led by Bishop Stefanos of Julfa, deposed N., who was replaced by Stefanos (1695-96); after barely a year, the latter had to abandon the see. N. was restored.
The negotiations for union between the *vattapet* of the Armenians of Persia and Fr. Villotte S.J. and Gaudreau of the Paris Foreign Missions were not crowned with success, and the attempt to win over the 30,000 Armenians of Julfa together with their 400 priests failed over secondary issues.
In May 1699, a delegation set out from Constantinople to Echmiadzin in the name of Innocent XII, led by Khaciatur Vartapet Arakalean, bearing the brief of 3 May 1698 *Graves, etsi non inconsuetos*, and papal gifts for N., who received them with great pomp. N. removed the anathemas against the Council of Chalcedon and St. Leo, recently introduced into the sacred ordinations, and he interdicted Avetik, the intrusive bishop of Erzurum and later patriarch of Constantinople, a persecutor of Catholics. N., however, did not succeed in his aim of union because of the manifold difficulties arising from the excessive dispersion of the Armenian dioceses, subject to various currents according to the different empires in which they found themselves, partly enjoying the civil support of various Islamic states. N. was also renowned as a builder of many churches and monasteries in Armenia.