Eparchy (Greek:ἐπαρχίαeparchía "overlordship") is anecclesiastical unit inEastern Christianity that is equivalent to adiocese inWestern Christianity. An eparchy is governed by aneparch, who is abishop. Depending on the administrative structure of a specific Eastern Church, an eparchy can belong to anecclesiastical province (usually ametropolis), but it can also be exempt. Each eparchy is divided intoparishes, in the same manner as a diocese in Western Churches. Historical development of eparchies in various Eastern Churches was marked by local distinctions that can be observed in modern ecclesiastical practices of theEastern Orthodox Church,Oriental Orthodox Churches andEastern Catholic Churches.[1]
TheEnglish wordeparchy is ananglicized term that comes from the originalGreek word (Koine Greek:ἐπαρχία,romanized: eparchía,lit. 'overlordship',Byzantine Greek pronunciation:[e.parˈçi.a]).[2] It is anabstract noun, formed with anintensiveprefix (ἐπι-,epi-,lit. 'over-' +ἄρχειν,árchein,lit. 'to be ruler'). It is commonlyLatinized aseparchia. The term can be loosely translated as the rule over something (literally: an overlordship). The term had various meanings and multiple uses throughout history, mainly in politics and administration, starting from theHellenistic period, and continuing throughout theRoman era.[3][4]
In theGreco-Roman world, it was used as a Greek equivalent for theLatin termprovincia, denotingprovince, the main administrative unit of theRoman Empire. Thesame use was employed in the earlyByzantine Empire until major administrative reforms that were undertaken between the 7th and 9th centuries, abolishing the old provincial system. In modern times, the term was also employed within administrative systems of some countries, likeGreece andCyprus.[5]
Since it was commonly used as the main Greek designation for an administrative province of the Roman Empire, the termeparchy consequently gained an additional use among Greek-speakingChristians, denotingecclesiastical structures on the provincial level of Church administration, withinEastern Christianity. Such terminological borrowing resulted from the final consolidation of the provincial (metropolitan) system in the 4th century. TheFirst Ecumenical Council (325) confirmed (Canon IV)[6] that all bishops of each civil province should be grouped in oneecclesiastical province, headed by ametropolitan (bishop of the provincial capital). Since civil provinces were called eparchies in Greek, the same term was used to define ecclesiastical provinces. Such use became customary, and metropolitan provinces came to be known aseparchies.[7][failed verification][8][9]
Throughout the late antiquity and the early medieval period, withinEastern Orthodox terminology, the termeparchy remained a common designation for a metropolitan province i.e.metropolis (Greek:μητρόπολις,Latin:metropolis).
During the later medieval period, terminology started to shift, particularly within thePatriarchate of Constantinople. The process oftitle-inflation that was affectingByzantine bureaucracy and aristocracy also gained momentum in ecclesiastical circles. In order to promote centralization, patriarchal authorities started to multiply the numbers of metropolitans by elevating local bishops to honorary metropolitan ranks without giving them any real metropolitan powers, and making them directly appointed and thus more dependent on Constantinople. As a consequence, the use of the wordeparchy was expanded to include not only proper metropolitan provinces, but also the newly created honorary metropolitan sees that were no real provinces, and thus no different then simple bishoprics except in honorary titles and ranks. In spite of that, such honorary metropolitan sees also came to be calledeparchies. This process was systematically promoted, thus resulting in a major terminological shift.[10][failed verification]
Since the fragmentation of the original metropolitan provinces into several titular metropolises that were also referred to aseparchies, the Patriarchate of Constantinople became more centralized, and such structure has remained up to the present day.[11] Similar ecclesiastical terminology is also employed by otherautocephalous andautonomous churches withinEastern Orthodox community. In those who are non-Greek, termeparchy is used in local variants, and also has various equivalents in local languages.[citation needed]
Eparchies of the main Eastern Orthodox churches:
In theEastern Catholic Churches, eparchy is equivalent to adiocese of theLatin Church, and itsbishop can be called an eparch (equivalent to a diocesan of the Latin Church). Similarly, an archeparchy is equivalent to anarchdiocese of the Latin Church and its bishop can be called an archeparch (equivalent to anarchbishop of the Roman Rite).[1]
Individual eparchies of some Eastern Catholic Churches may be suffragan to Latin Church metropolitans. For example, theGreek Catholic Eparchy of Križevci is suffragan to theRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Zagreb.[12] Also, some minor Eastern Catholic churches have Latin prelates. For example, theMacedonian Greek Catholic Church is organized as a singleEparchy of Strumica-Skopje, whose present ordinary is the Roman Catholic bishop of Skopje.[13]
The dictionary definition ofeparchy at Wiktionary
