Ametropolis,metropolitanateormetropolitan (arch)dioceseis anepiscopal seewhosebishopis themetropolitan bishoporarchbishopof anecclesiastical province.Metropolises, historically, have been important cities in their provinces.
Eastern Orthodox
editIn theEastern OrthodoxChurches, a metropolis (also calledmetropoliaormetropolitanate) is a type ofdiocese,along witheparchies,exarchatesandarchdioceses.
In the churches ofGreek Orthodoxy,every diocese is a metropolis, headed by a metropolitan whileauxiliary bishopsare the only non-metropolitan bishops.
In non-Greek Orthodox churches, mainly Slavic Orthodox, the title of Metropolitan is given to the heads ofautocephalouschurches or of a few importantepiscopal sees.[1]
Catholic Church
editIn theLatin Church,or Western Church, of theCatholic Church,a metropolitan see is the chiefepiscopal seeof anecclesiastical province.Itsordinaryis ametropolitan archbishopand the see itself is anarchdiocese.It has at least onesuffragan diocese.
There are very few suffragan sees that have the rank of archdiocese, such as theArchdiocese of Avignonthat is a suffragan of theArchdiocese of Marseille.[2]Other non-metropolitan archdioceses are directly subject to theHoly Seeand are merely "aggregated" to an ecclesiastical province, without being part of it.
In theEastern Catholic Churches,ametropolitanateis an autonomous church of a lower category than thepatriarchaland themajor archiepiscopalchurches and is headed by a single metropolitan of a fixedepiscopal see.[3][4]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^Britannica: Metropolitan (ecclesiastical title)
- ^Catholic-hierarchy.org
- ^Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, canon 155 §1
- ^"John D. Faris,The Eastern Catholic Churches: Constitution and Governance(Saint Maron Publications, New York 1992), p. 376 "(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2017-08-20.Retrieved2017-07-09.
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