Bishop Ignatius Maloyan

The Vatican is canonising the Armenian Catholic bishop Ignatius Maloyan, who was killed during the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

Maloyan was head of the Armenian diocese of the city of Mardin. In June 1915 he was arrested together with 13 priests and 600 faithful and sent to the village of Kara-Köprü near Tigranakert (Diyarbakır). A few days later Maloyan was killed when he refused to renounce Christianity.

The photograph shows a bearded clergyman with a dark veil covering his head, a cross and two star-shaped decorations on his chest.