Archbishop is an important church rank

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

The vast majority of people living in our country are Orthodox Christians. Many have heard what spiritual ranks exist: bishop, metropolitan, bishop. However, few people know what they really mean, where they come from, and what duties all these people perform in the church hierarchy. Who is the archbishop? What is this dignity for?

Origin of the word

Archbishop is a bishopric. The word itself is Greek in origin and consists of several words: άρχή - "main", επί - "above", σκοπος - "caretaker". If put together and translated literally, it means "chief over the caretakers." However, the word "bishop" itself comes from the whole word επίσκοπος and means "guardian". An archbishop is the so-called "government" degree of a bishop, the next rank is directly a metropolitan.

History of the origin of the term

Under the emperorConstantine the Great carried out an administrative reorganization of the entire Roman Empire, which was divided into four prefectures. Each of them consisted of the so-called dioceses, which in turn consisted of provinces. The civil structure completely coincided with the church one. At that time, the archbishop was the chief bishop of the diocese, he was also called the exarch (in Latin - the vicar). This rank stood in the hierarchy after the patriarch - the head of the prefecture, but higher than the metropolitan. But in the Eastern Empire in the early Byzantine era, originally in the patriarchate of Constantinople, the meaning of the word archbishop took on a second meaning. This word began to be called bishops, whose regions were located on the territory of the district of the metropolis, but were withdrawn from the direct department of the metropolitan himself and transferred to the subordination of the patriarch. Also, the archbishop began to take a lower place in the diptych than the metropolitan. In the end, this dignity became the distinction of the bishop itself and is not associated with any special powers of authority compared to just bishops.

In the Orthodox Russian Church

In Orthodoxy, there are many prominent spiritual figures, such as Archbishop Luke, who became a victim of Stalinist repressions for his faith. The second primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Leonty, who was part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, was often also called an archbishop. However, in the future, absolutely all the primates in Russia were already called metropolitans. In Russia, the archbishop is a title that was exclusively honorary and nowas not associated with any additional administrative duties and powers to the status of a bishop. Starting from the twelfth century, this word began to be called the lords of Novgorod. Then this title was given to the bishops of other cathedras: Krutitsy, Kazan, Rostov and others. Archbishop Luke also received this rank for his exceptional services to the Church in difficult times.

In today's world

In our time, the archbishop is the head of the autocephalous Church. Along with the patriarchs, this term refers to the primates of Constantinople (the archbishop of New Rome - Constantinople), the archbishop of Tbilisi and Mtsekhit (Georgian Church), the archbishop of Pech (Serbian Church) and Bucharest (Romanian Church). The primates of the autonomous Churches of Finland and Sinai, as well as the semi-autonomous Church of Crete, are named in the same way. In accordance with the tradition established in Russia, the rank of archbishop is an honorary distinction and is lower than the title of metropolitan. The situation is the same in the Jerusalem and Georgian Churches. In autonomous and autocephalous Churches, the title of archbishop may be worn as a rank following the metropolitan, that is, a secondary one. In the Bulgarian and Alexandrian Churches, this dignity is absent altogether.