RITES IN THE UNITED STATES 225 



nople, entered into negotiations with Cardinal Ledochowski, 

 Prefect of the Congregation of the Propaganda, and through 

 him obtained the consent of Archbishop Corrigan of New 

 York and Archbishop Williams of Boston for priests of the 

 Armenian Rite to labor in their respective provinces for the 

 Armenian Catholics who had come to this country. He sent as 

 the first Armenian missionary the Very Reverend Archpriest 

 Mardiros Mighirian, who had been educated at the Propa- 

 ganda and the Armenian College, and arrived in the United 

 States on Ascension Day, May 11, 1899. He at first went to 

 Boston, where he assembled a small congregation of Armenian 

 Catholics, and later proceeded to New York to look after the 

 spiritual welfare of the Catholic Armenians in Manhattan and 

 Brooklyn. He also established a mission station in Worcester, 

 Massachusetts. In New York and Brooklyn the Catholics of 

 the Armenian Rite are divided into those who speak Armenian 

 and those who, coming from places outside of the historic Ar- 

 menia, speak the Arabic language. At present this missionary 

 is stationed at St. Stephen's Church in East Twenty-eighth 

 Street, since large numbers of Armenians live in that vicinity, 

 but has another congregation under his charge in Brooklyn. 

 All these Catholic Armenians are too poor to build any church 

 or chapel of their own, and use the basement portion of the 

 Latin churches. Towards the end of 1906 another Armenian 

 priest, Rev. Manuel Basieganian, commenced mission work in 

 Paterson, New Jersey, and now attends mission stations 

 throughout New England, New Jersey and Eastern Pennsyl- 

 vania. In 1908 Rev. Hovsep (Joseph) Keossajian settled in 

 Lawrence, Massachusetts, and established a chapel in St. 

 Mary's Church. He also ministers to the spiritual wants of the 

 Armenian Catholics at Boston, Cambridge, East Watertown, 

 Newton, Lynn, Chelsea and Lowell. In 1909 Rev. Moses Ma- 

 zarian took charge of the Armenian mission at Cleveland, 

 Ohio, and in the cities throughout the west. None of these 

 have been able to build independent Armenian churches, but 

 usually hold their services in the Roman Catholic churches. 

 Besides the places already mentioned there are slender Arme- 

 nian Catholic congregations at Haverhill, Worcester, Fitch- 

 burg, Milford, Fall River, Holyoke and Whiting, in Massa- 

 chusetts ; Nashua and Manchester, in New Hampshire ; Provi- 

 dence, Pawtucket and Central Falls, in Rhode Island; New 



