PATRIARCHS. - I. ORIGINS. - Already canon 6 of the Council of Nicaea (325) recognized as invested with a special supremacy the bishops of Alexandria (v.) for Egypt and Cyrenaica, of Antioch (v.) for the East, and of Rome for the whole West (without prejudice, naturally, to the primacy of the Roman see over the whole Church).
In canon 2 of the Council of Constantinople (381) the bishop of Constantinople (v.) was added to them, because this city was the new Rome, although until then the ancient Byzantium had been nothing but a diocese included in the province of Thrace. Subsequently this state of affairs was connected with St. Peter, inasmuch as the Apostle had governed the Church of Antioch, had sent his disciple Mark to Alexandria, and had died in Rome; for Constantinople recourse was had to St. Andrew, brother of St. Peter. During the 5th century the latter city succeeded in making its supremacy felt over Asia Minor (Ephesus and Caesarea of Cappadocia); while Rome continued to assert its rights over all the Danubian provinces, over Macedonia, Greece, and the Aegean islands, except Cyprus, which remained autocephalous. At the Council of Chalcedon (451) the bishop of Jerusalem succeeded in having himself recognized as metropolitan with patriarchal powers over Palestine (can. 28). Only at the Fifth Lateran Council (1215) was the first place after the Roman pontiff recognized to the patriarch of Constantinople.
In the West, during the Schism of the Three Chapters, Aquileia (v.) arrogated to itself patriarchal authority (end of the 6th century); and when the province split in two, both Aquileia and Grado proclaimed themselves patriarchates, until the former was suppressed in 1751 and the latter was united with the see of Olivolo-Castello and transferred to Venice (1451).
During the period of the Crusades the Latin patriarchates of Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Constantinople were established (after the temporary occupation of 1204), soon reduced to mere titular prelatures which continued to be conferred down to our own times; while the successions of the Eastern heretical or schismatic patriarchs were not interrupted.
Following the union with Rome of a part of the populations of the Eastern rite, a patriarchate was recognized for each of them for each individual rite; thus there are patriarchates of Antioch for the Melkites, the Syrians, and the Maronites; a patriarchate of Babylon for the Chaldeans and another of Sis and Cilicia for the Armenians; while there was a Latin patriarch of Jerusalem in 1847 with jurisdiction over Palestine and Cyprus, and a patriarch for the Catholic Copts of Egypt after 1895.
After the discovery of America and the establishment of the hierarchy in those regions, the patriarchate of the West Indies was constituted with residence in Madrid. Clement XI in 1716 granted to the archbishop of Lisbon (v.) the title of patriarch, and Leo XIII, on 1 September 1886, granted that of patriarch of the East Indies to the archbishop of Goa (v.) in India. To the patriarchs of the Latin rite, according to present-day discipline, there belongs no jurisdiction superior to that of any metropolitan.
Pio Paschini
II. EASTERN DISCIPLINE
The patriarchs of the Eastern rite, after their election made by the bishops of their rite, are confirmed by the supreme pontiff and ask him for the pallium. The patriarch has first of all the direct government of his own eparchy or diocese and, through the bishops, that of the individual dioceses of the patriarchate.
To him are therefore subject the bishops, clergy, monks and faithful included within his circumscription. Over them he exercises ordinary jurisdiction with legislative, judicial and also coercive power, which does not exclude, in the gravest cases, direct pontifical intervention. The patriarch visits the patriarchate, convokes and presides over the synods, authentically interprets their decisions and in particular cases grants dispensations for the whole patriarchate itself. He supervises the activity of the individual bishops, supplies for their negligences and at the moment of the vacancy of each diocese assumes its temporary government, providing for the appointment of the successor, who is confirmed by the Holy See and consecrated by the patriarch himself. By virtue of the ancient right of stauropegion, by planting the patriarchal cross on some sacred place (monastery, sanctuary, house, hospital) outside the patriarchal diocese, he renders it exempt from the local bishop and subjects it to his direct jurisdiction. Without the consent of the Holy See he cannot exercise power over the faithful of his rite who live outside the patriarchal territory and are not his subjects; he must, however, supervise that his own rite be everywhere faithfully and integrally observed; nor indeed can he, without the good pleasure of the Holy See, introduce modifications into it.
A more recent determination of the power of patriarchs in matters of marriage, of ecclesiastical judgments, of religious and with regard to the administration of temporal ecclesiastical goods is contained in the laws on these matters promulgated by Pope Pius XII (Crebrae ollatae, 22 Feb. 1949; Sollicitudinem nostram, 6 Jan. 1950; Postquam Apostolicis, 9 Feb. 1952; AAS, 41 [1949], pp. 90-119, 42 [1950], pp. 5-120; 43 [1952], pp. 65-150), while a still more complete review of patriarchal rights is awaited from the Apostolic See in the codification of Eastern law. There are added further privileges and honors, which are an external and solemn recognition of patriarchal authority, such as the title of "beatitude"; precedence over all bishops and metropolitans; the privilege of being preceded, within the territory, by the patriarchal cross; the use of the sacred pallium throughout the territory and, according to the norms established by the Holy See, the faculty of pontificating in all the churches of the patriarchate, the exclusive privilege of consecrating the Holy Chrism and distributing it to the individual bishops as well as that of reserving to himself the consecration of the antimensia, the privilege of being commemorated, immediately after the pope, in the liturgy and on the other occasions prescribed by the rite by all the bishops and clerics of the patriarchate. For further clarifications it is necessary to have recourse to the documents concerning the different patriarchates.