Patriarch

The word is derived from Greek πατριάρχης (patriarchēs), meaning "chief or father of a family", a compound of πατριά (patria), meaning "family", and ἄρχειν (archein), meaning "to rule".

Originally, a patriarch was a man who exercised 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 Christianity. 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.

Catholic Church

Patriarchs

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 reasons.

Since the Council of Nicaea, the bishop of Rome has been recognized as first among patriarchs. 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 to the bishop of Rome a patriarchate covering the whole of Christianized Europe (including almost all of modern Greece), except Thrace, the areas around Constantinople, and the Black Sea coast. He also included the western part of North 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 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:

• The Patriarch of Rome (Pope), as head of the Latin Church
• The Coptic Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria (Pope) and head of the Coptic Catholic Church, recognised in 1824
• The Maronite Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East and head of the Maronite Church, recognised in 685
• The Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem, head of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church; in his case, Antioch is the actual and sole patriarchate, Alexandria and Jerusalem are just titular (once residential) patriarchates vested in his see.
• The Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East and head of the Syriac Catholic Church
• The Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Baghdad and head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, recognised in 1553
• The Armenian Catholic Patriarch of Cilicia and head of the Armenian Catholic Church, recognised in 1742

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

Minor Latin patriarchates

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.

• The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, established in 1099.
• The Patriarch of the East Indies, a titular patriarchal see, united to Goa and Daman, established in 1886.
• The Patriarch of Lisbon, established in 1716.
• The Patriarch of Venice, established in 1451.

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 – from 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 Crescenzi, 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

One of the pope'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 the Latin Church.

The title was not included in the 2006 Annuario Pontificio. 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. The title was reintroduced in the 2024 edition of Annuario Pontificio. No explanation was provided for its reintroduction.

Current and historical Catholic patriarchates

Motu proprio Mutua Concordia

Under the provision of Mutua Concordia, an Apostolic Letter published on August 29, 2026, Pope Leo XIV introduced for Eastern Synods the faculty to remove Patriarchs from office with a "secret ballot of at least two-thirds of the members of the Synod entitled to vote". The Pope has the sole power of confirming a Synod's decision.