KATHOLIKOS. — In Eastern canon law, k. signifies the delegate for the universality of causes. The title was probably given from the 4th century to the supreme bishops of certain Churches that originated from the patriarchate of Antioch, namely those of Seleucia-Ctesifonte (Persia), of Armenia, and of Georgia. Soon, every juridical link with the mother Church disappeared.
At present, in the Catholic Church, there are two k.: the Armenian and the Chaldean, who also received the title of patriarch. Among the dissidents, the Armenians have the supreme k. of Echmiadzin (v.) and another autonomous one at Sis in Cilicia; a third, that of Aghtamar in Turkey, was not reestablished after the Turkish persecution of 1915–
18. There is also the Georgian k
patriarch, previously suppressed by the Russian Holy Synod in 1818 and reestablished in 1917, and finally the k. of the Nestorians in Persia, practically independent. To these must be added the “Mafian” (v.) Syrian, who is a true k. but not independent.BIBL.: A. Leclercq, s. V. in DACL, VIII, cols. 686–89; IX, cols. 1577–80.