VARDAPET. — Also written “vartapet” or “vartapet,” it is an ecclesiastical title of the Armenian Church, combining an office and a certain dignity, initially reserved to hieromonks, who constituted the sole class of the celibate clergy.
In the course of history the title was also accessible to secular (widowed) clergy and, from the 17th century, to secular (celibate) clergy trained in Western seminaries. The origin of the title is traced back to the 5th century. The first known vardapet was the hieromonk St. Mesrop.
The duties of the vardapet are: a) preaching the word of God; b) teaching sacred doctrine in ecclesiastical training institutes; c) providing doctrinal assistance to resident bishops; d) exercising the power of binding and loosing in the internal sacramental and extra-sacramental forum. The conferral of this title is made by the vardapet masters, after a long period of sacred study and according to a certain ceremony.
Some initial analogy may be noted between the Armenian vardapets and the Canons Regular of the Latin discipline, but they subsequently developed along different lines.