Patriarch

The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), and the Church of the East are termed patriarchs (and in certain cases also popes).

This article is about the title in Christianity. For other uses, see Patriarch (disambiguation).
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The word is derived from Greek πατριάρχης (patriarchēs),[1] meaning "chief or father of a family",[2] a compound of πατριά (patria),[3] meaning "family", and ἄρχειν (archein),[4] meaning "to rule".[2][5][6][7]

Originally, a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is termed patriarchy. Historically, a patriarch has often been the logical choice to act as ethnarch of the community identified with his religious confession within a state or empire of a different creed (such as Christians within the Ottoman Empire). The term developed an ecclesiastical meaning, within the Christian Church. The office and the ecclesiastical circumscription of a Christian patriarch is termed a patriarchate.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are referred to as the three patriarchs of the people of Israel, and the period during which they lived is termed the Patriarchal Age. The word patriarch originally acquired its religious meaning in the Septuagint version of the Bible.[8]

Catholic Church
Catholic Patriarchal (non cardinal) coat of arms

Patriarchs
Map of Justinian's Pentarchy
Patriarch of Alexandria Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak. wearing a distinctive clothing of a patriarch.

In the Catholic Church, the bishop who is head of a particular autonomous Church, known in canon law as a Church sui iuris, is ordinarily a patriarch, though this responsibility can be entrusted to a Major Archbishop, Metropolitan, or other prelate for a number of serious reasons.[9]

Since the Council of Nicaea, the bishop of Rome has been recognized as the first among patriarchs.[10] That Council designated three bishops with this 'supra-Metropolitan' title: Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch. In the Pentarchy formulated by Justinian I (527–565), the emperor assigned as a patriarchate to the Bishop of Rome the whole of Christianized Europe (including almost all of modern Greece), except for the region of Thrace, the areas near Constantinople, and along the coast of the Black Sea. He included in this patriarchate also the western part of North Africa. The jurisdictions of the other patriarchates extended over Roman Asia, and the rest of Africa. Justinian's system was given formal ecclesiastical recognition by the Quinisext Council of 692, which the see of Rome has, however, not recognized.

There were at the time bishops of other apostolic sees that operated with patriarchal authority beyond the borders of the Roman Empire, such as the Catholicos of Selucia-Ctesephon.

Today, the patriarchal heads of Catholic autonomous churches are:[11]

Major archbishoprics

Four more of the Eastern Catholic Churches are headed by a prelate known as a "Major Archbishop,"[13] a title essentially equivalent to that of Patriarch and originally created by Pope Paul VI in 1963 for Josyf Slipyj:[14]

Within their proper sui iuris churches there is no difference between patriarchs and major archbishops. However, differences exist in the order of precedence (i.e. patriarchs take precedence over major archbishops) and in the mode of accession. Whereas the election of a major archbishop has to be confirmed by the pope before he may take office,[15] no papal confirmation is needed for a newly elected patriarch before he takes office. Rather, a newly-installed patriarch is required to petition the pope as soon as possible for the concession of what is called ecclesiastical communion.[16][17] Furthermore, patriarchs who are created cardinals form part of the order of cardinal bishops, whereas major archbishops are only created cardinal priests.

Minor Latin patriarchates

Minor patriarchs do not have jurisdiction over other Metropolitan bishops. The title is granted purely as an honor for various historical reasons. They take precedence after the heads of autonomous churches in full communion, whether pope, patriarch, or major archbishop.

Historical Latin patriarchates
  • The Patriarch of Aquileia – with rival line of succession moved to Grado - dissolved in 1752.
  • The Patriarch of Grado – in 1451 merged with the Bishopric of Castello and Venice to form the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Venice (later a residential Patriarchate itself).
  • The Patriarch of the West Indies – a titular patriarchal see, vacant since 1963.
  • The Latin Patriarch of Antioch – title abolished in 1964.
  • The titular Latin Patriarch of Alexandria – title abolished in 1964.
  • The Latin Patriarch of Constantinople – title abolished in 1964.
  • The Latin Patriarchate of Ethiopia – 1555 to 1663, never effective, only held by Iberian Jesuits

Patriarch as title ad personam

The pope can confer the rank of Patriarch without any see, upon an individual Archbishop, as happened on 24 February 1676 to Alessandro Cescenzi, of the Somascans, former Latin Titular Patriarch of Alexandria (19 January 1671 – retired 27 May 1675), who nevertheless resigned the title on 9 January 1682.

"Patriarch of the West"
Main article: Pentarchy

In theological and other scholarly literature of the Early Modern period, the title "Patriarch of the West" (Latin: Patriarcha Occidentis; Greek: Πατριάρχης τῆς Δύσεως) was mainly used as designation for the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome over the Latin Church in the West. From 1863 to 2005, the title "Patriarch of the West" was appended to the list of papal titles in the Annuario Pontificio, which in 1885 became a semi-official publication of the Holy See. This was done without historical precedent or theological justification: There was no ecclesiastical office as such, except occasionally as a truism: the patriarch of Rome, for the Latin Church, was the only patriarch, and the only apostolic see, in the "west".

The title was not included in the 2006 Annuario. On 22 March 2006, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity offered an explanation for the decision to remove the title. It stated that the title "Patriarch of the West" had become "obsolete and practically unusable" when the term the West comprises Australia, New Zealand and North America in addition to Western Europe, and that it was "pointless to insist on maintaining it" given that, since the Second Vatican Council, the Latin Church, for which "the West" is an equivalent, has been organized as a number of episcopal conferences and their international groupings.[18]

Though the formulation "Patriarch of the West" is no longer used, the pope in that role issues the Code of Canon Law for the Latin Church. During the Synod of Bishops on the Middle East in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appeared, as patriarch of the Latin Church, with the other patriarchs, but without the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, though he was present at the same Synod.[19]

Current and historical Catholic patriarchates
Current and historical Catholic patriarchates
Type Church Patriarchate Patriarch
Patriarchs
of autonomous
particular churches		 Latin Rome Pope Francis
Coptic Alexandria Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak
Syrian Antioch Ignatius Joseph III Younan
Maronite Antioch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi
Greek-Melkite Antioch Youssef Absi
Armenian Cilicia Krikor Bedros XX Gabroyan
Chaldean Babylon Louis Raphaël I Sako
Major archbishops
of autonomous
particular churches		 Ukrainian Kiev-Halych Sviatoslav Shevchuk
Syro-Malabar Ernakulam-Angamaly George Alencherry
Syro-Malankara Trivandrum Baselios Cleemis
Romanian Făgăraş and Alba Iulia Lucian Mureșan
Titular
Latin Rite
patriarchs		 Latin Aquileia suppressed in 1751
Latin Grado suppressed in 1451
Latin Jerusalem vacant since 2016
Latin Lisbon Manuel (III) Clemente
Latin Venice Francesco Moraglia
Latin Alexandria suppressed in 1964
Latin Antioch suppressed in 1964
Latin Constantinople suppressed in 1964
Latin East Indies Filipe Neri Ferrão
Latin West Indies vacant since 1963

Eastern Christianity

Eastern Orthodox

Patriarchs outside the Eastern Orthodox Communion

Oriental Orthodox Churches

Church of the East
Main articles: Nestorianism, List of Patriarchs of the Church of the East, and Catholicos of the East (disambiguation)

Patriarchs of the Church of the East, sometimes also referred to as Nestorian, the Church of Persia, the Sassanid Church, trace their lineage of patriarchs back to the 1st century.

Manichaeism

The term patriarch has also been used for the leader of the extinct, dualist, heretical Manichaeist sect, initially based at Ctesiphon (near modern-day Baghdad) and later at Samarkand.

Other independent uses

The title of "Patriarch" is assumed also by the leaders of certain relatively recent groups, who are in communion with none of the historic Christian Churches. Many, but not necessarily all such patriarchs are church leaders of the independent Catholic Churches:

Independent Catholic
Independent Eastern Catholic
Independent Eastern Orthodox
Independent Oriental Orthodox
Protestant
Latter Day Saint movement
Main article: Patriarch (Latter Day Saints)

In the Latter Day Saint movement, a patriarch is one who has been ordained to the office of patriarch in the Melchizedek priesthood. The term is considered synonymous with the term evangelist, a term favored by the Community of Christ. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one of the patriarch's primary responsibilities is to give patriarchal blessings, as Jacob did to his twelve sons according to the Old Testament. Patriarchs are typically assigned in each stake and possess the title for life.

Others
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See also

References
  1. πατριάρχης, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  2. Online Etymological Dictionary: "patriarch"
  3. πατριά, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  4. ἄρχω, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  5. Merriam-Webster: "patriarch"
  6. American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: "patriarch"
  7. Oxford Dictionaries: "patriarch"
  8. Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Patriarch" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  9. Code of Canons of Eastern Churches. 1990. pp. 58–59.
  10. "DOCUMENTS FROM THE FIRST COUNCIL OF NICEA". History Sourcebooks Project. Fordham university. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
  11. "Patriarchs". GCCatholic.org. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
  12. Maloney, G.A. (2002). New Catholic Encyclopedia (Revised ed.). Gale. pp. 15 vols. ISBN 978-0787640040.
  13. Code of Canons of Eastern Churches. Catholic Church. 1990. pp. 151–154.
  14. "CCEO: text - IntraText CT". Intratext.com. 4 May 2007. Retrieved July 2013. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  15. Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium: Can. 153
  16. Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium: Can. 76
  17. An example of the petition and the granting of ecclesiastical communion: "Exchange of letters between Benedict XVI and His Beatitude Antonios Naguib". Holy See Press Office. Retrieved 2013-01-18.
  18. "Communiqué on title 'Patriarch of the West'". Zenit. 22 March 2006. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
  19. "Meeting of the Eastern Catholic Patriarchs and Major Archbishops with Pope Benedict XVI". Society of St. John Chrysostom. 20 September 2009. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
  20. Catholic Near East Welfare Association, a Papal agency for humanitarian and pastoral assistance Archived 2009-01-15 at the Wayback Machine (ID: 20).
  21. Catholic Near East Welfare Association, a Papal agency for humanitarian and pastoral support Archived 2009-01-15 at the Wayback Machine (ID: 21).
  22. Catholic Near East Welfare Association, a Papal agency for humanitarian and pastoral assistance Archived 2009-01-15 at the Wayback Machine (ID: 18).
  23. Catholic Near East Welfare Association, a Papal agency for humanitarian and pastoral assistance Archived 2009-01-15 at the Wayback Machine (ID: 17).
  24. Catholic Near East Welfare Association, a Papal agency for humanitarian and pastoral assistance Archived 2009-01-15 at the Wayback Machine (ID: 19).
  25. "Eglise Orthodoxe Autonome de France". Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 1 April 2019..
  26. When a woman was elected head of this Church, she was styled Matriarch. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-07-05. Retrieved 2010-03-18.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

Further reading
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