Born at Aintap in 1679, ordained priest at Sis in 1706, designated bishop of Aleppo in 1710, Abraham Ardzivian was banned from his church because of his attachment to Catholicism.
Expelled from his Aleppo seat by the secular arm of the Ottoman Empire, four times jailed and once condemned to galleys, in exile at the Island of Rouad, Abraham Ardzivian did not stop preaching his faith, to win other adepts everywhere he went, harassed by the emissaries of the Sultan.
Hated by some, venerated by others, he was the head of spear of the movement of religious emancipation, that refused people to be taxed according to their adherence to the "millet" which was created by the ottoman authorities. In order not to grant to minorities of the empire their religious liberty except if centered in a determined "millet".
This movement of emancipation ended at Aleppo, the stronghold of Mgr. Ardzivian, who had in the meantime, taken refuge at the convent of Kreim after his liberation of the island of Rouad. He was summoned to rejoin his faithful to Aleppo, where they had succeeded in appropriating one of the two Armenian churches of the city.
Mgr. Ardzivian arrived there in 1739. There he consecrated three Armenian Catholics bishops, attended by two Greek Catholic bishops. The three new bishops in their turn consecrated Patriarch Mgr. Ardzivian elected by his people on November 26, 1740.
Yet the creation of an Armenian Catholic Patriarchate within the Universal church required the approval of the Chief of this same Church. Mgr. Ardzivian embarked then to Rome, where he was received heartily by Benoit XIV (1740-1758), September 5, 1742. The 8th December of the same year, the Holy Father granted him the Pallium. Then he wrote to the Maronite Patriarch Simon Rouad: "We want to ask you to have for our Venerable Brother Pierre, Patriarch, of Cilica for the Armenians Catholics, all considerations and the most cordial friendship. This to be agreeable to us. Because we have for him the highest consideration" (P. Raphael, "The Role of the Maronites in the return of the Oriental Churches ", Beirut 1935, p. 40).
The official recognition by Rome of the patriarchal election of Mgr. Ardzivian made only more poisonous the already tense relations between the Sublime Door and the Western Powers accredited to Constantinople. Patriarch Ardzivian saw that he was forbidden to all harbors of the empire. He took refuge in his convent of Kreim, where the Maronite hierarchy received him with open arms on October 6, 1743. Henceforth he dedicated himself entirely to the consolidation of his Patriarchate and to the organization of St-Antoine's Armenian Monks. After an illness he died on October 1st, 1749. "The Maronites arranged magnificent funeral ceremonies. One does not see something similar, said the chronicles." (P. Raphael, op. cit. p. 41).
Before his death, his last will was the transfer of his Patriarchal Seat to the Convent of Bzoummar, of which he ordered the construction, but saw it only with the eyes of the heart.
*Abraham-Pierre I Ardzivian was badly understood by his contemporaries. He was taxed of ambitions, of little realism. It was made fun to foresee the end of his Patriarchate, once the founder disappeared. All this beautiful people had to undeceive himself, because the human aims were absent from the soul of this Apostle, and because providence wanted otherwise. Since, 16 Patriarchs followed him on this throne, 50 bishops of his Institute dedicated themselves to this work and 500 members of that same Patriarchal Institute gave themselves body and soul to continue his work everywhere Armenian communities were established.
*Benoit XIV, his great
friend, made this remark to him one day: "I strongly fear, that you will
have troubles with the Patriarch of Etchmiadzine the day when he converts
to the faith of his Fathers. That day would be the happiest of the
mortals Holiness, and would serve him as the humblest of his servants".