Fr. Shnork Souin, is a priest of the Armenian Orthodox Church serving a parish in Rhode Island with three full decades of service as a priest and pastor in the Armenian Church in America, in both Canada and in the United States.
In 2009 he was diagnosed with Cardiomyopathy yet his service to the church continued despite personal challenges, including years of battling his heart failure. By 2016, he was finally hospitalized in critical end-stage heart failure at Tufts Medical Center in Boston where he survived six months until being sent home after two more months of rehab, with two Ventricular Assist Devices (Bi-VADs). On October 9, 2018, Fr. Shnork received a life-saving heart transplant, which he considers life changing and a profound blessing from God giving him a new lease on life. Since his transplant, renewed with vigor and health, he lives life to its fullest, again playing some hockey, exercising, travelling and leading missions to Armenia while pastorally taking care of a robust and busy parish.
Since his heart transplant, Fr. Shnork Souin has been extremely engaged in his ministry, investing in his life, family and service. He became a founding member of the Armenian Lacrosse Federation, established in 2023 together with his friend Johnny Mouradian. Over the past year and a half, they have dedicated themselves to bringing the sport that they love to the people, and especially the youth, of their ancestral homeland with the slogan Hope in their hearts and sticks in their hands as a guiding principal. They have successfully run two summers of camps that have introduced lacrosse to over 650 children in Armenia throughout numerous regions and are forming a national program targeting the Olympics as a goal in 2028.
He has been a member of the Heartbrothers Transplant Support Group since 2017 and serves on the patient advisory board. He also looks for opportunities to support the work of New England Donor Services (NEDS) having participated in numerous events with his dear friend Ingrid Palacios. Since transplant, he has also been learning Spanish having taken three university courses and is now enrolled in a CPE clinical pastoral education program starting this fall.
