Patriarch

views updated May 18 2018

Patriarch.
1. Title from the 6th cent. for the presiding bishops of the five main sees of Christendom (Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, and Jerusalem), corresponding to provinces of the Roman Empire, who had authority over the metropolitans in their territories. In addition to these, the heads of some autocephalous Orthodox churches, the heads of Uniat Churches, and the heads of the Oriental Orthodox and Assyrian Churches also have the title of patriarch.

2. The term is also used as an English equivalent of soshigata, the founder of a Buddhist, especially Zen, school, together with his lineage successors.