![Hovakim I of Constantinople](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Hovakim_I_of_Constantinople.JPG)
Hovakim I, also known as Hovakim of Bursa, was the first
Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople
The Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople (french: Patriarche de Constantinople, tr, Konstantinopolis Ermeni Patriği), also known as Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul, is today head of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople ( hy, Պատրիա ...
under the authority of the
Catholicos of Armenia and of all Armenians
The Catholicos of All Armenians (plural Catholicoi) ( hy, Ամենայն Հայոց Կաթողիկոս; see #Other names), is the chief bishop and spiritual leader of Armenia's national church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, and the worldwide Arme ...
. He and his community were invited by the
Ottoman Sultan
Mehmed II
Mehmed II ( ota, محمد ثانى, translit=Meḥmed-i s̱ānī; tr, II. Mehmed, ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror ( ota, ابو الفتح, Ebū'l-fetḥ, lit=the Father of Conquest, links=no; tr, Fâtih Su ...
to the city from
Bursa
( grc-gre, Προῦσα, Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, ota, بورسه, Arabic:بورصة) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the ...
in 1461, eight years after the
Fall of Constantinople
The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city fell on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 53-day siege which had begun o ...
(1453). Hovakim I was recognized as the religious and
secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...
leader of all
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire (or Ottoman Armenians) mostly belonged to either the Armenian Apostolic Church or the Armenian Catholic Church. They were part of the Armenian millet until the Tanzimat, Tanzimat reforms in the nineteenth centu ...
, and carried the title of ''
milletbaşı'' or
ethnarch
Ethnarch (pronounced , also ethnarches, el, ) is a term that refers generally to political leadership over a common ethnic group or homogeneous kingdom. The word is derived from the Greek words ('' ethnos'', "tribe/nation") and (''archon'', "l ...
as well as
patriarch
The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certai ...
. He was Armenian Patriarch from 1461 to 1478.
References
Armenian Patriarchs of Constantinople
Armenians from the Ottoman Empire
Armenian Oriental Orthodox Christians
15th-century people from the Ottoman Empire
15th-century Oriental Orthodox bishops
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