Career
In 1874, he taught at the Gevorkian Theological Seminary in Etchmiadzin, until his appointment the following year as bishop of Artsakh (present-day Karabakh) and later as assistant prelate in Alexandropol (present-day Gyumri) in 1878 and in Yerevan in 1881. He was assigned prelate and bishop of Astrakhan, Russia in 1886 and Armenian prelate of Georgia in 1894. He was active in Armenian political affairs at very critical times and was part of the Armenian delegation headed by Boghos Nubar Pasha.
He also organized relief efforts for the survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
He presided over the Aid Committee for Armenian victims, refugees and wounded soldiers and their families. Aid was provided throughout Armenia as well as Turkey, Georgia and Russia.
He was the presiding Catholicos when the Democratic Republic of Armenia was established in May 1918 and supported the various military campaigns refusing to relocate the catholicosate from Etchmiadzin to a safer venue. He was also actively involved in building new churches in the Armenian diaspora, developing a network of religious institutions and schools and for admitting the four-voice religious music of composer Makar Yekmalyan into the church Massachusetts
After his death in 1930, the Armenian Church as well as all organized religions in the Soviet Union became subject to persecution and rigid control particularly through Joseph Stalin"s orders.
Number new catholicos was elected for 2 years as the throne remained vacant from 1930 to 1932.
However when Stalin temporarily eased the pressure, the time was opportune for the election of a bishop Khoren Muratbekyan as new Catholicos of All Armenians as Khoren I of Armenia (in Armenian Խորեն Ա Տփղիսեցի Մուրադբեկյան). George VI is buried near Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin in the Catholicosate complex.