The word is derived fromGreek 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, apatriarch was a man who exercised authority as apater familias over anextended family.[8] The system of such rule of families by senior males is termed "patriarchy". Historically, a patriarch has often been the logical choice to act asethnarch of the community identified with his religious confession within a state or empire of a differentcreed (such as Christians within theOttoman Empire). The term developed an ecclesiastical meaning withinChristianity. The office and the ecclesiastical circumscription of a Christian patriarch is termed apatriarchate.
In theCatholic Church, the bishop who is head of a particularautonomous church, known in canon law as a churchsui iuris, is ordinarily a patriarch, though this responsibility can be entrusted to a major archbishop, metropolitan, or other prelate for a number of reasons.[10]
Since theCouncil of Nicaea, the bishop of Rome has been recognized as first among patriarchs.[11] That council designated three bishops with this 'supra-Metropolitan' title: Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch. In thePentarchy formulated byJustinian I (527–565), the emperor assigned to thebishop of Rome a patriarchate covering the whole of Christianized Europe (including almost all of modernGreece), exceptThrace, the areas aroundConstantinople, and theBlack Sea coast. He also included the western part ofNorth Africa in this patriarchate. The jurisdictions of the other patriarchates extended over Roman Asia and the rest of Africa. Justinian's system was given formal ecclesiastical recognition by theQuinisext Council of 692, which thesee 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 thecatholicos of Selucia-Ctesephon.
Today, the patriarchal heads of Catholic autonomous churches are:[12]
Minor patriarchs do not have jurisdiction over other metropolitan bishops. The title is granted purely as an honour for various historical reasons. They take precedence after the heads of autonomous churches in full communion, whether pope, patriarch, or major archbishop.
ThePatriarch of Aquileia – with rival line of succession moved to Grado – dissolved in 1752.
ThePatriarch 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 pope can confer the rank of patriarch without any see, upon an individual archbishop, as happened on 24 February 1676 toAlessandro Crescenzi, of theSomascans, formerLatin Titular Patriarch of Alexandria (19 January 1671 – retired 27 May 1675), who nevertheless resigned the title on 9 January 1682.
One of thepope's traditional titles in some eras and contexts has been "Patriarch of the West" (Latin:Patriarcha Occidentis;Greek: Πατριάρχης τῆς Δύσεως), highlighting the role of the bishop of Rome as the highest authority of theLatin Church.
The title was not included in the 2006Annuario Pontificio. On 22 March 2006, thePontifical 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 termthe 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 theSecond Vatican Council, theLatin Church, for which "the West" is an equivalent, has been organized as a number ofepiscopal conferences and their international groupings.[16] The title was reintroduced in the 2024 edition ofAnnuario Pontificio. No explanation was provided for its reintroduction.[17]
The five junior Patriarchates created after the consolidation of the Pentarchy, in chronological order of their recognition as Patriarchates by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople:
The five junior Patriarchates created after the consolidation of the Pentarchy
The term patriarch has also been used for the leader of the extinctManichaean religion, initially based atCtesiphon (near modern-dayBaghdad) and later atSamarkand.
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