Armenian Ambassador to Great Britain Armen Sarkissian, who’s also the leading candidate to become Armenia’s next president, visited the Mekhitarist Congregation in Vienna and was given a tour of the site by monks Vahan Hovakimian and Nareg Dadourian.

The Mekhitarist abbey in Vienna was founded in 1810, but the order itself, a congregation of Benedictine monks of the Armenian Catholic Church, was founded in 1701.

 In 2000, on the 300th anniversary of their foundation, the Mekhitarists of Vienna and those of Venice reunited into one order after having been separated for 227 years.

Sarkissian also had the occasion to meet and chat with Archbishop Levon Zekiyan, a well-respected Armenia philologist.