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.^[11]

Since the Council of Nicaea, the bishop of Rome has been recognized as the first among patriarchs.^[12] 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 as a patriarchate to the Bishop of Rome the whole of Christianized Europe (including almost all of modern Greece), except for the region of Thrace, the areas near Constantinople, and along the coast of the Black Sea. He included in this patriarchate also the western part of North Africa. 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:^[13]

• The Patriarch of Rome (Pope), as head of the Latin Church^[14]
• The Coptic Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria (Pope) and head of the Coptic Catholic Church, recognised 1824
• The Maronite Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East and head of the Maronite Church, recognised 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 1553
• The Armenian Catholic Patriarch of Cilicia and head of the Armenian Catholic Church, recognised 1742

Four more of the Eastern Catholic Churches are headed by a prelate known as a "Major Archbishop,"^[15] a title essentially equivalent to that of Patriarch and originally created by Pope Paul VI in 1963 for Josyf Slipyj.^[16]

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

Current and historical Catholic patriarchates

Eastern Orthodox

• The five ancient Patriarchates, the Pentarchy, listed in order of preeminence ranked by the Quinisext Council in 692:

• 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:

Patriarchs outside the Eastern Orthodox Communion

Oriental Orthodox Churches

Church of the East

Catholicose of the East is the title that has been held by the ecclesiastical heads of the Church of the East, the Grand Metropolitan of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, since AD. 280.

It refers to Patriarchs of the Church of the East, primate (Catholicos-Patriarch) of the Church of the East now divided into:

• Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East.
• Catholicos-Patriarchs of the Ancient Church of the East (since 1964)