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Eparchy

An eparchy is a diocese of an Eastern Christian church, governed by a bishop called an eparch.^[1] In the Eastern Catholic Churches, the term is formally defined in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (promulgated in 1990) as "a portion of the people of God which is entrusted for pastoral care to a bishop with the cooperation of the presbyterate so that, adhering to its pastor and gathered by him in the Holy Spirit through the Gospel and the Eucharist, it constitutes a particular Church in which the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ is truly present and operative."^[2] This definition emphasizes the eparchy's role as a local community of faithful, bounded by territorial limits unless otherwise specified, where the bishop exercises proper, ordinary, and immediate authority in spiritual and administrative matters, subject to regulation by the Apostolic See.^[2] Eparchies in these churches are erected, modified, or suppressed either by the Apostolic See or, within patriarchal churches, by the patriarch with synodal consent, ensuring alignment with pastoral needs and resources.^[2] The word "eparchy" derives from the Greek eparchia, meaning "province" or "administration," originally denoting a subdivision of a Roman prefecture under a prefect (eparchos), a term combining epi- ("on" or "over") and archos ("ruler").^[1] In early Christianity, particularly in the Eastern tradition, it evolved from referring to larger provincial units to the jurisdiction of a single bishop, paralleling the Western "diocese" while reflecting distinct canonical traditions.^[3] This usage persists in both Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, where eparchies form the basic territorial units for episcopal oversight, often grouped into larger metropolitan or patriarchal structures.^[1] In practice, eparchies maintain a cathedral church as the bishop's seat and focus on fostering the spiritual life of the faithful through liturgy, sacraments, and community governance.^[2]

Definition and Terminology

Etymology

The term eparchy derives from the Ancient Greek word ἐπαρχία (eparchía), signifying "overlordship," "rule over," or "province," which stems from the root ἔπαρχος (epárchos), meaning "overseer," "prefect," or "governor." This etymological foundation combines the prefix ἐπί- (epí-), denoting "upon" or "over," with ἄρχω (árchō), "to rule" or "command," reflecting authority over a territory. In Hellenistic administration, eparchía designated territorial administrative units or provinces, as seen in the Seleucid kingdom where rulers like Antiochus III restructured governance into smaller such divisions for efficient control. The term carried over into Roman usage as the Greek equivalent of the Latin provincia, applied to territorial divisions, particularly those under imperial prefects or legates in more volatile regions.^[4] A key example of its application occurred during the administrative reforms of Emperor Diocletian in the late 3rd century CE (284–305), when the Roman Empire was divided into four major prefectures—Gaul, Italy, Illyricum, and the East—each subdivided into dioceses and further into provinces termed eparchies in Greek-speaking areas.^[5]^[6] This usage persisted into the Byzantine Empire, where eparchy continued to refer to civil provinces governed under the praetorian prefects, serving as the basic units of territorial administration equivalent to the Latin provincia.^[7]

Ecclesiastical Usage

In Eastern Christianity, encompassing both the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic traditions, an eparchy constitutes the primary ecclesiastical jurisdiction, equivalent in function to a diocese in the Western (Latin) Church but distinguished by its terminology and canonical heritage to uphold Eastern liturgical and administrative distinctiveness.^[8] An eparchy is governed by a bishop known as an eparch, who exercises pastoral authority over a defined territory of the faithful, including clergy and laity, in communion with the broader Church structure.^[8] This usage reflects the adaptation of the term from its secular Roman origins as an administrative province to a sacred division of the Church.^[9] The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches formally defines an eparchy as "a portion of the people of God which is entrusted for pastoral care to a bishop with the cooperation of the presbyterate so that, adhering to its pastor and gathered by him in the Holy Spirit through the Gospel and the Eucharist, it constitutes a particular Church in which the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ is truly present and operative."^[10] In practice, the basic eparchy is headed by a simple eparch, whereas higher-ranking sees are termed metropolitan eparchies (under a metropolitan) or archeparchies (the principal eparchy of a Church sui iuris, often led by a major archbishop).^[10] Eastern Churches deliberately eschew the Western term "diocese" in favor of "eparchy" and its variants to preserve their patristic and conciliar traditions, avoiding assimilation into Latin canonical nomenclature.^[8] The term's earliest formalized ecclesiastical application occurs in Canon IV of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325 CE), which states in its original Greek that a bishop should be appointed "by all the bishops in the eparchy" (ἐν τῇ ἐπαρχίᾳ), thereby establishing eparchies as provincial units coordinated under metropolitan oversight to ensure orderly episcopal consecrations.^[9] This canon underscores the eparchy's role as a collective ecclesiastical province, where at minimum three bishops from the eparchy must participate in ordinations, with consent from the others, to maintain unity and canonical validity.^[9]

Historical Development

Origins in Early Christianity

In the second and third centuries, Christian communities began organizing into episcopal sees, which served as territorial jurisdictions centered on a bishop's oversight of local congregations, evolving from informal house churches to more structured entities influenced by Roman civic administration. Bishops, often elected through public acclamation similar to Roman practices, managed churches within urban civitates and surrounding pagi, aligning ecclesiastical boundaries with imperial provinces to facilitate governance and unity against heresies. This development marked a shift toward the monarchical episcopate, where a single bishop held authority over presbyters and deacons in a given locale, as evidenced in writings from figures like Ignatius of Antioch around 115 CE, who emphasized the bishop's role in maintaining doctrinal cohesion.^[11]^[12] The Council of Nicaea in 325 CE represented a pivotal formalization of these eparchies into metropolitan provinces, where a metropolitan bishop—typically of the provincial capital—oversaw the election and ratification of suffragan bishops across multiple parishes. Canon 4 stipulated that "a bishop should be appointed by all the bishops in the province," with at least three convening if necessary and the metropolitan providing final ratification, thereby establishing hierarchical oversight within defined territories. Similarly, Canon 6 affirmed the Bishop of Alexandria's jurisdiction over Egypt, Libya, and Pentapolis, extending the same privileges to the Bishops of Rome and Antioch, thus recognizing these as archetypal metropolitan sees with authority over subordinate bishops.^[13] Early church councils further defined suffragan relationships, positioning eparchies as networks where provincial synods addressed disputes and elections, drawing on apostolic sees like Antioch and Alexandria for precedent. Antioch, linked to Peter's early ministry and the first use of the term "Christians" (Acts 11:26), emerged as a major see by the second century, with its bishop coordinating churches in Syria and beyond, as Ignatius exemplified through his letters urging unity under episcopal leadership. Alexandria, traditionally founded by Mark under Peter's direction, functioned as a theological hub governing a vast eparchy without needing additional metropolitans, its bishop wielding influence over Libyan and Pentapolitan communities by the third century. These examples illustrated how eparchies integrated apostolic heritage with provincial administration to sustain the church's expansion.^[13]^[11]^[14]

Evolution in the Byzantine Empire

Following the Edict of Milan in 313 CE, which legalized Christianity under Emperor Constantine I, the ecclesiastical structure of the church expanded rapidly across the Roman Empire's eastern territories, with eparchies—local bishoprics under metropolitan oversight—emerging to mirror the empire's civil provinces for streamlined governance and missionary outreach.^[15] By the mid-5th century, the Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE (Canon 28) empowered the Patriarchate of Constantinople to ordain metropolitans and administer eparchies in the dioceses of Pontus, Asia, and Thrace, as well as among "barbarians" beyond imperial borders, thereby aligning church divisions more closely with imperial administrative units to enhance coordination between religious and secular authorities.^[15] This integration built upon early Christian foundations established at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, where provincial synods under metropolitans were formalized to maintain doctrinal unity. In the 6th century, Emperor Justinian I further centralized ecclesiastical administration through his legal reforms, incorporating provisions on church jurisdictions into the Corpus Juris Civilis, a comprehensive codification of Roman law promulgated between 529 and 565 CE that regulated episcopal appointments and provincial boundaries to support imperial stability.^[16] A notable example was the creation in 535 CE of the autocephalous Archbishopric of Justiniana Prima in the Eparchy of Illyricum, Justinian's native region in the Balkans, which shifted oversight of Dardanian and other Illyrian eparchies from the metropolitan see of Thessalonica to this new center, thereby rationalizing boundaries amid reconquests and promoting Orthodox influence in frontier areas.^[17] These measures reflected Justinian's broader policy of intertwining church and state, as seen in his construction of churches and suppression of pagan institutions to unify the empire under Chalcedonian Christianity.^[16] By the 7th to 12th centuries, the Byzantine church experienced key developments in eparchial organization, including a proliferation of honorary titles amid territorial losses to Arab and Slavic incursions, where defunct or diminished eparchies were retained as prestige awards for loyal clergy without active jurisdiction, mirroring the title inflation in imperial bureaucracy.^[18] The Patriarchate of Constantinople assumed a pivotal supervisory role, ordaining metropolitans across Thrace, Asia Minor, and extended regions like Illyricum and southern Italy, while convening permanent synods to resolve disputes and enforce doctrinal conformity, as evidenced by the Quinisext Council of 692 CE (Canon 36), which reaffirmed Constantinople's appellate authority over provincial eparchies.^[19]^[15] This oversight ensured administrative efficiency, with patriarchal deacons increasingly influencing appointments to maintain loyalty amid imperial pressures, such as during the Iconoclastic controversies.^[19]

Post-Schism Adaptations

Following the Great Schism of 1054, the Eastern Orthodox Church preserved the eparchial model rooted in earlier ecclesiastical structures, particularly the pentarchy of patriarchates established by the Council of Chalcedon in 451, which organized eparchies under the oversight of the sees of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and (initially) Rome.^[20] This framework emphasized conciliar equality among the Eastern sees, allowing eparchies to function as semi-autonomous territorial units governed by bishops while remaining in communion with higher authorities.^[21] The schism's divergence from the West reinforced this Eastern retention, as the Orthodox communion adapted to isolation by prioritizing internal cohesion amid emerging political pressures. Under Ottoman rule beginning in 1453, the traditional eparchial system endured through the millet system, where the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople was appointed as ethnarch over all Orthodox Christians, granting bishops civil and religious authority within their eparchies using Byzantine legal traditions. This adaptation centralized eparchial administration under the Patriarchate to navigate Islamic governance, though it introduced corruption and Phanariot dominance by the 18th century, subjugating non-Greek eparchies in Slavic and Arab regions.^[22] The resulting tensions fueled 19th-century national revivals, culminating in the emergence of autocephalous churches with their own eparchial networks, such as the Church of Greece (autocephalous in 1850) and the Romanian Orthodox Church (1885), which reasserted local control over territories previously aligned with Constantinople.^[23] In the Russian Orthodox context, the 1917 Revolution prompted significant eparchial adaptations, as Bolshevik decrees separated church and state, confiscating properties and reducing the number of parishes from over 50,000 to fewer than 500 by the 1930s, while the number of eparchies shrank from around 67 to a handful.^[24] Under Soviet communism, eparchies faced systematic suppression during the Great Terror (1937–1938), with over 100 bishops arrested or executed, forcing surviving structures to operate clandestinely through lay-led communities.^[24] Post-World War II, Stalin's pragmatic reopening of some parishes and eparchies for wartime mobilization allowed partial revival, but full restoration occurred after 1991, with the Russian Orthodox Church reestablishing over 30,000 parishes and reorganizing eparchies into metropolias for administrative efficiency. Modern adaptations in the diaspora highlight ongoing challenges, as multiple autocephalous churches maintain overlapping eparchies in regions like North America and Western Europe, violating canonical norms of one bishop per territory and creating parallel Greek, Russian, and Antiochian structures in shared urban centers. These jurisdictional overlaps stem from 20th-century migrations, prompting calls for canonical resolution at forums like the Holy and Great Council of 2016, which urged unified diocesan assemblies without altering autocephalous statuses.^[25]

Structure in the Eastern Orthodox Church

Hierarchical Organization

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, eparchies serve as the fundamental administrative units within each autocephalous church, functioning as local expressions of the universal Church under the direct leadership of a diocesan bishop, also known as the eparch. This bishop holds pastoral and jurisdictional authority over the eparchy's territory, overseeing spiritual life, clergy appointments, and ecclesiastical discipline in accordance with the holy canons. Eparchies are typically subdivided into smaller units such as deaneries, which group parishes for coordinated pastoral care and administrative efficiency, and individual parishes, which represent the grassroots communities of the faithful served by priests under the bishop's oversight.^[26]^[27] The hierarchical framework places eparchies within broader provincial or patriarchal structures, where suffragan eparchies—those led by auxiliary or subordinate bishops—fall under the supervision of a metropolitan or patriarch. Metropolitans preside over a group of eparchies forming a metropolis, convening provincial synods to address regional matters, while patriarchs exercise oversight in larger autocephalous churches, ensuring doctrinal unity and resolving disputes. This layered organization maintains eparchial autonomy in local governance while integrating eparchies into the synodal system, where inter-eparchial issues such as appeals from episcopal decisions or boundary disputes are handled collectively.^[26]^[28] The canons of the ecumenical councils, including those ratified by the Council in Trullo (692 CE), establish the principles of eparchial autonomy, affirming the bishop's independent authority within defined territorial limits while mandating appeals to metropolitan synods or higher patriarchal bodies for grave matters like doctrinal conflicts or episcopal elections. These canons emphasize synodal governance as the normative mechanism for collective decision-making across eparchies, preventing isolation and promoting conciliarity. For instance, the Russian Orthodox Church, one of the largest autocephalous bodies, comprises over 300 eparchies organized under its Holy Synod, illustrating the scalability of this structure in managing vast territories and diverse communities. This model traces its roots to Byzantine ecclesiastical arrangements, adapted to modern contexts without altering core canonical foundations.^[29]^[30]^[26]

Role and Authority of the Eparch

The eparch, as the diocesan bishop in the Eastern Orthodox Church, serves as the chief shepherd of the faithful within his eparchy, bearing primary responsibility for the spiritual and administrative governance of the region. This role encompasses liturgical oversight, ensuring the proper celebration of sacraments and divine services; the appointment and ordination of clergy; pastoral care through guidance, teaching, and issuing pastoral letters to expound the Orthodox faith; and management of church property, including the establishment and consecration of parishes, missions, and monasteries.^[31]^[32] The eparch's authority is canonical and jurisdictional, allowing him to convene local synods or assemblies of clergy for decision-making on diocesan matters, as well as to impose disciplinary measures such as temporary excommunication for grave offenses against church order. However, this authority is delimited by submission to the holy synod of the autocephalous church, which oversees broader decisions, and adherence to the sacred canons, with the eparch's rulings subject to appeal through conciliar processes.^[33]^[34]^[31] Eparchs are elected by the holy synod of their respective church, often from qualified monastic or widowed clergy with theological education, followed by ordination and enthronement if necessary. For instance, in the Russian Orthodox Church, the Eparchy of Moscow is uniquely governed by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', who exercises these duties on a grand scale, overseeing numerous parishes and clergy in the capital while coordinating with the Holy Synod on national matters.^[31]^[35]

Structure in Eastern Catholic Churches

Canonical Framework

In the Eastern Catholic Churches, an eparchy serves as the equivalent of a diocese in the Latin Church, constituting a portion of the people of God entrusted to the pastoral care of an eparch, who governs it in collaboration with the presbyterate to form a unified community of the faithful.^[36] An archeparchy functions similarly to a metropolitan see or archdiocese, led by an archeparch who holds primacy within a province of eparchies.^[8] This structure preserves the Eastern traditions of synodal governance and hierarchical order while ensuring communion with the universal Church. The primary canonical basis for eparchies in the Eastern Catholic Churches is the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO), promulgated by Pope John Paul II on October 18, 1990, through the apostolic letter Sacri Canones. The CCEO, comprising 1,546 canons divided into 30 titles, codifies the common law applicable to all Eastern Churches sui iuris, integrating their patristic and liturgical heritage with the doctrine of papal primacy and the collegiality of bishops. Title VI of the CCEO (Canons 178–216) specifically delineates the establishment, boundaries, and governance of eparchies and archeparchies, emphasizing their role as stable portions of the Church with defined territories or personal jurisdictions. This framework draws from pre-union Orthodox parallels in terminology and organization but adapts them to the post-Schism context of full communion with Rome. As of the latest Holy See recognitions, there are 23 Eastern Catholic Churches sui iuris, each organized into one or more eparchies or archeparchies to serve their faithful worldwide. For instance, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the largest of these with over 6.5 million members as of 2024, maintains 36 eparchies and exarchates, including 20 in the diaspora across Europe, North America, Australia, and South America to address the needs of Ukrainian emigrants and their descendants.^[37]^[38] These diaspora eparchies, such as the Archeparchy of Winnipeg in Canada and the Eparchy of Chicago in the United States, exemplify how the CCEO enables flexible jurisdictional arrangements to sustain Eastern Catholic identity amid migration.^[8]

Relationship to the Latin Church

Eastern Catholic eparchies operate as autonomous territorial divisions within their respective sui iuris Churches, which are self-governing entities headed by patriarchs, major archbishops, or other hierarchs, yet they are fully integrated into the universal Catholic communion under the supreme authority of the Roman Pontiff. According to the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO), these eparchies maintain their own canonical discipline and liturgical traditions while recognizing the Pope's full, supreme, and universal power over the entire Church, which he exercises personally as needed for the governance and unity of all rites.^[10] Appeals from decisions within an eparchy ultimately lie with the Holy See, ensuring a direct line of accountability to the Roman Pontiff as the final judge in both judicial and administrative matters.^[10] A key aspect of this relationship involves provisions for clergy to navigate mixed liturgical and jurisdictional contexts, often through bi-ritual faculties that allow Eastern Catholic priests to celebrate sacraments in the Latin rite under specific conditions approved by competent authorities.^[39] This facilitates pastoral service in regions with overlapping Latin and Eastern populations, where Eastern clergy may assist Latin communities without transferring their incardination, promoting unity while preserving rite-specific identity. In certain historical or territorial arrangements, Eastern eparchies may function as suffragans to Latin metropolitan sees, subjecting them to oversight by a Latin archbishop for administrative coordination, as seen in the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Križevci, which reports to the Archdiocese of Zagreb in Croatia.^[8] In the United States, the Melkite Greek Catholic Eparchy of Newton exemplifies this collaborative dynamic, encompassing Melkite faithful nationwide and working in tandem with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Its bishop, such as the current Bishop François Beyrouti, participates actively in USCCB assemblies and serves on committees like the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, enabling joint initiatives on issues like home missions and youth formation that bridge Eastern and Latin traditions.^[40] This coordination underscores the eparchy's role in fostering ecclesial solidarity without compromising its sui iuris autonomy.^[41]

Comparisons and Variations

With Western Dioceses

Eparchies in Eastern Christian traditions and dioceses in the Western (Latin) Church function as territorial bishoprics, each comprising a network of parishes under the leadership of a single bishop responsible for the spiritual oversight of the faithful. Both structures emphasize sacramental administration, including the celebration of the Eucharist and other rites, as well as pastoral care such as catechesis, moral guidance, and community welfare.^[36] These units share early Christian roots, emerging from the apostolic era's organization of local communities under overseers (episkopoi), as described in New Testament texts like the Pastoral Epistles, and formalized in the patristic period through councils such as Nicaea (325 AD), where territorial jurisdictions were delineated to ensure orderly governance. Functionally, they overlap in key processes: bishops in both systems are appointed or elected through established ecclesiastical procedures, such as by the Holy See in the Catholic Church or by a synod of bishops in the Orthodox Church, participate in synodal bodies for decision-making on doctrinal and disciplinary matters, and operate within defined jurisdictional boundaries that respect civil and ecclesiastical divisions.^[42]^[43]^[26] Ecumenical dialogues have affirmed this mutual equivalence, notably through the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, established in 1980, which recognizes the shared validity of apostolic succession and episcopal orders underpinning these territorial structures. While "eparchy" stems from the Greek term for provincial administration and "diocese" from the Latin equivalent, both denote the same foundational ecclesial unit.^[44]^[36]

Usage in Other Eastern Traditions

In the Oriental Orthodox Churches, which include traditions such as the Coptic, Armenian, and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo, administrative units analogous to eparchies in Eastern Orthodox usage are typically termed "dioceses" or "provinces," reflecting parallel hierarchical structures developed independently after the Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE.^[45] This divergence arose from Christological disputes, leading the Oriental Orthodox to reject Chalcedonian definitions and establish distinct ecclesial organizations that emphasized miaphysitism while maintaining episcopal governance similar to their Byzantine counterparts. The term "eparchy" sees limited adoption in these traditions, as their canonical terminology favors "diocese" to denote territories under a bishop's jurisdiction, often grouped under metropolitan sees or patriarchal oversight. For instance, the Coptic Orthodox Church organizes its synodally governed territories into numerous dioceses, such as the Diocese of Behira and the Diocese of Damietta, each led by a bishop responsible for pastoral care, liturgy, and community administration within defined geographic bounds.^[46] Similarly, the Armenian Apostolic Church divides its global presence into dioceses like the Diocese of the Armenian Church of Georgia and the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, which function as self-sustaining units under the Catholicos of All Armenians or the Catholicos of Cilicia.^[47] The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church employs a comparable model, with dioceses including the Addis Ababa Diocese and the West Arsi Diocese, integrating ancient monastic influences into their episcopal framework while adapting to regional ethnic and linguistic diversity.^[48] In the Assyrian Church of the East, structures akin to eparchies are known as "metropolitan sees," which oversee suffragan dioceses and trace their origins to early Christian communities in Persian territories from the Sassanid era onward.^[49] These sees, such as those historically in Iraq, Iran, and India, emerged from the Church's expansion beyond the Roman Empire, fostering a decentralized hierarchy under the Catholicos-Patriarch that paralleled post-Chalcedonian developments in resilience against external persecutions.^[50] By the 14th century, the church supported around 30 metropolitan sees and 200 dioceses, underscoring their role in sustaining apostolic succession amid geopolitical isolation from Chalcedonian communions.^[49]

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[45]
Hierarchical Structure in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches
Eastern Catholic Churches have a hierarchical structure defined by four grades: patriarchal, major archiepiscopal, metropolitan, and other Churches sui iuris.
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Dioceses - Coptic Orthodox Church
Diocese of Behira. Bishop Elarion ; Diocese of Damietta, Kafr El Sheikh & ElBarari. Bishop Marcos ; Diocese of Tanta. Metropolitan Poula ; Diocese of Mahala Kobra.
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Dioceses - Armenian Church
Dioceses · Diocese of the Armenian Church of Georgia · Diocese of the Armenian Church of New Nakhichevan and Russia · Primate of the Armenian Diocese of Krasnodar ...
[48]
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church 2023
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church · Addis Ababa Diocese · West Arsi Diocese · Assosa Diocese · Diocese of West Shewa - Abune Gabriel · Outside Ethiopia.
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The Assyrian Church of the East - CNEWA
Oct 26, 2021 · By 1318 there were some 30 metropolitan sees and 200 suffragan dioceses. But during the invasions of Tamerlane in the late 14th century ...
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Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East
The Church of the East is now thinly spread throughout the world, with its main centres in Iraq, Iran, Syria, India (where it is known as the Chaldean Syrian ...