Chronicles Of The Western Diocese's Centennial History With Norayr Poghosyan

California’s first Armenian parish was established in Fresno. The first religious service was held on September 17, 1883, at Fresno’s First Congregational Church.

The parish’s first clergyman was Rev. Fr. Aaron Melkonian. Beginning in June 1902, Rev. Fr. Sahak Nazaretian, pastor of Holy Trinity Armenian Church of Fresno, traveled from one parishioner’s home to another by bicycle to minister to the faithful.

Photo: Fresno in the 1890s, where California’s first Armenian immigrants gathered and where the state’s first Armenian church, Holy Trinity Armenian Church, was established.