page_title: Mkrtich Khrimian
section_title: Progressivism
hierarchical_section_title: Mkrtich Khrimian / Views and ideological influence / Progressivism
context_page_description: Mkrtich Khrimian was an Armenian Apostolic Church leader, educator, and publisher who served as Catholicos of All Armenians from 1893 to 1907. During this period he was known as Mkrtich I of Van.
  A native of Van, one of the largest cities in Turkish Armenia, Khrimian became a celibate priest in 1854 after the death of his wife and daughter. In the 1850s and 1860s he served as the abbot of two important monasteries in Turkish Armenia: Varagavank near Van and Surb Karapet Monastery near Mush. During this period he established schools and journals in both monasteries. He served as Patriarch of Constantinople—the most influential figure within the Ottoman Armenian community—from 1869 to 1873 and resigned due to pressure from the Ottoman government which saw him as a threat. He was the head of the Armenian delegation at the 1878 Congress of Berlin. Returning from Europe, he encouraged Armenian peasants to follow the example of Christian Balkan peoples by launching an armed struggle for autonomy or independence from the Ottoman Turks.
  Between 1879 and 1885 he served as prelate of Van, after which he was forced into exile to Jerusalem.
context_section_description: In the 1860s and 1870s, Khrimian was, along with Harutiun Svadjian, one of the major liberal Armenian activists in the Ottoman Empire. At the same time, liberals like Grigor Artsruni, Mikael Nalbandian, and Stepanos Nazarian were active in the Russian Empire. Arra Avakian described him as a "very progressive educator." American feminist Alice Stone Blackwell wrote in 1917: "All his views were progressive" and praised his promotion of female education: "He was a strong advocate of education for girls, and in one of his books, The Family of Paradise, he argues against the prevailing Oriental idea that husbands have a right to rule over their wives by force." Derderian also noted his "belief in the importance of educating women" and his encouragement of "participation of women in spreading enlightenment principles." Another author stated that he made "voluminous contribution to progressive Armenian intellectualism." Vartooguian, writing in 1896, suggested that Khrimian "was a conservative in matters of the Church."
caption: A 1906 painting of Khrimian by Vardges Sureniants depicting the moment he received the letter about the Russian decree ordering the confiscation of Armenian Church properties in 1903.[53]
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