Madera and the faith healer

The Madera Tribune File Photo

Faith Healer Avak Hagopian, center.

---

Krikor Arakelian is a name that will always be remembered in Madera. As a 12-year-old boy, He immigrated to Fresno with his family from Turkish Armenia. At first, he worked on the family farm and then went out on his own. Eventually he increased his acreage to include land in Fresno, Kings, Madera, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties. He farmed grapes and raisins, and built the Mission Bell Winery in Madera. By the 1940s, he was worth $25 million. Arakelian had found the end of the rainbow, but there was one problem. His son, Vaughn, had epilepsy, which was naturally heartbreaking for the father.

For years he spent thousands of dollars and turned to a host of physicians for a cure to his son’s illness but to no avail. He hired a nurse to be with Vaughn, and the family tried to deal with the situation as best it could. Then in 1947, Krikor heard about Avak Hagopian, a 20-year-old Iranian faith healer.

It was reported to Arakelian that Hagopian had been told by a divine voice that he had been called to be a faith healer, and from then on when he laid hands on sick people they were healed.