VARDAPET. - Also written «vartapet» or «vartaped», it is an ecclesiastical title of the Armenian Church, entailing an office and also a certain dignity, initially reserved to hieromonks, who constituted the only class of celibate clergy.
In the course of history the title also became accessible to the widowed secular clergy and, from the 17th century, to the celibate sec-
ular clergy trained in Western seminaries. The origin of the title would date back to the 5th century. The first V. would have been the hieromonk St. Mesrop.
The office of the V. consists in: a) preaching the word of God; b) sacred teaching in institutions for ecclesiastical formation; c) doctrinal assistance to residential bishops; d) the exercise of the power absolventi et ligandi in the sacramental and extrasacramental internal forum. This title is conferred by master v., after a long apprenticeship in sacred studies and according to a certain ceremony.
One may affirm some initial analogy between the Armenian V. discipline, though they subsequently developed differently.