It has been one year from the day of ordination

With the blessing of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, by the hand of the Primate of the Artsakh diocese, Bishop Vrtanes Abrahamyan, on this day, April 25 last year, Deacon Manvel Sargsyan, minister of Dadivank, was offered to the priesthood in the Gandzasar Monastery. The consecrating Holy Father was named Father Athanasius after the famous medieval Abbot of Dadivank monastery, Bishop Athanasius. For the first time after liberation, monastic ordination took place in Artsakh, which was a consolation and great joy not only for the Artsakh diocese, but for the entire Armenian people.

After ordination, Father Athanasius moved to Dadivank, where, after a forty-day fast, he served his first Holy Liturgy. Then, under the leadership of Bishop Vrtanes Abrahamyan, he visited the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and introduced himself to His Holiness. His Holiness expressed his satisfaction to the Bishop Vrtanes Abrahamyan and congratulated the newly anointed Father. In the following months Father Atanas continued his ministry in Dadivank. Since the spring of this year, Father Atanas and other clergy of Dadivank replaced by other clergy who continue to pray daily in the monastery, preserving Dadivank as an Armenian shrine with their presence.