A patriarchate is the office or jurisdiction of a patriarch. A patriarch, as the term is used here, is either
- one of the highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, of whom there were originally four, but now nine; or
- one of the twelve highest-ranking bishops of Roman Catholicism: the Roman Pope, the seven "patriarchs of the east", and the bishops of Lisbon, Venice, Jerusalem, and the East Indies; or
- one of the specific patriarchs of the various Oriental Orthodox and Nestorian churches.
The original five patriarchs sat in Rome, Constantinople (now called Istanbul for secular purposes, but still called Constantinople in this ecclesiastical context), Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. In the East-West Schism of 1054, the one Latin-speaking patriarchate (Rome) and the four Greek-speaking patriarchates split, forming the hierarchies of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches respectively. The Patriarch of Antioch moved to Damascus in the 13th century, during the reign of the Egyptian Mamelukes, conquerors of Syria. In Damascus a Christian community had flourished since apostolic times (Acts 9). However, the patriarchate is still called the Patriarch of Antioch. A patriarchate has "legal personality" in some legal jurisdictions, that means it is treated as a corporation. For example, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem filed a lawsuit in New York, decided in 1999, against Christie's Auction House, disputing the ownership of the Archimedes Palimpsest. The head of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church is also called a Patriarch.
See also
External links
- "Patriarch and Patriarchate". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company.
