Father Mardiros Meguerian was appointed as the first priest to minister to Armenian Catholics in New York.

Meguerian was named the General Vicar of Armenian Catholics in the United States in 1911.

It was during his successors pastorate, Father Krikor Guerguerian, that Bishop Mikail Nersès Sétian was sent to New York in 1982 to lead the newly established Apostolic Exarchate of United States of America and Canada for the Armenians.

Until this time the Divine Liturgy was celebrated in Roman Catholic Churches in Brooklyn and Queens.

[2] Bishop Thomas Daily and his successor Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn offered St. Vincent de Paul Church in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn as a new site for both the exarchate and the cathedral parish.