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Apostolic see

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Apostolic see

In Catholicism, an apostolic see is any episcopal see whose foundation is attributed to one or more of the apostles of Jesus.

Contents

The fourth canon of the First Council of Nicaea of 325 attributed to the bishop of the capital (metropolis) of each Roman province (the "metropolitan bishop") a position of authority among the bishops of the province, without reference to the founding figure of that bishop's see. Its sixth canon recognized the wider authority, extending beyond a single province, traditionally held by Rome and Alexandria, and the prerogatives of the churches in Antioch and the other provinces. Of Aelia, the Roman city built on the site of the destroyed city of Jerusalem, the council's seventh canon reads: "Since custom and ancient tradition have prevailed that the Bishop of Aelia should be honoured, let him, saving its due dignity to the Metropolis, have the next place of honour." The metropolis in question is generally taken to be Caesarea Maritima, though in the late 19th century Philip Schaff also mentioned other views.

Pentarchy

This Council of Nicaea, being held in 325, of course made no mention of Constantinople, a city which was only officially founded five years later, at which point it became the capital of the Empire. But the First Council of Constantinople (381) decreed in a canon of disputed validity: "The Bishop of Constantinople, however, shall have the prerogative of honour after the Bishop of Rome; because Constantinople is New Rome." A century after the Council of Chalcedon (451) and the ensuing schism between those who accepted it and those who rejected it, Eastern Orthodox Christianity wove these two sources together to develop the theory of the Pentarchy: "[F]ormulated in the legislation of the emperor Justinian I (527–565), especially in his Novella 131, the theory received formal ecclesiastical sanction at the Council in Trullo (692), which ranked the five sees as Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem." Earlier, the Council of Ephesus decreed in 431 that the Church of Cyprus should be autocephalous, against the claims of Antioch, the capital of the Roman diocese of the East, of which Cyprus was part.

Listing of the sees

The patriarchs of these five sees consider themselves to be successors of those given special status in these canons:

  • Rome, in Italy (Saint Peter and Saint Paul)
  • Constantinople, now Istanbul in present-day Turkey (Saint Andrew)
  • Alexandria, in Egypt (Saint Mark the Evangelist)
  • Antioch, in present-day Turkey (Saint Peter)
  • Jerusalem, in the Holy Land (Saint Peter and Saint James)
  • Other sees who claim to be founded by an apostle and thus can claim to be apostolic sees include:

  • The Church of Cyprus, based at New Justiniana (Erdek), Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas
  • See of Athens, Greece (Saint Paul)
  • See of Ephesus, in present-day Turkey (John the Apostle)
  • Santiago de Compostela, in present-day Spain (James, son of Zebedee), also known as James the Apostle
  • Babylon or Seleucia-Ctesiphon, in present-day Iraq (Thomas the Apostle, Bartholomew the Apostle, and Thaddeus of Edessa)
  • Aquileia, in northeastern Italy (Mark the Evangelist as one of the Seventy Apostles)
  • See of Milan, in northwestern Italy (Barnabas the Apostle)
  • See of Syracuse, in Sicily (Peter)
  • Philippi, in Greece (Saint Paul)
  • See of Thessaloniki, in Greece (Saint Paul)
  • See of Corinth, in Greece (Saint Paul)
  • Church of Malta (Saint Paul)
  • The Russian Orthodox Church claims a connection with Saint Andrew, who is said to have visited the area where the city of Kiev later arose.
  • Armenian Apostolic Church (Thaddaeus (Jude the Apostle) and Bartholomew the Apostle)
  • The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church maintains that Christianity was originally introduced to Ethiopia via Saint Philip the Evangelist.
  • The Orthodox Church of Georgia claims Saint Andrew and Simon the Canaanite as its founders.
  • The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in India (Thomas the Apostle)
  • References

    Apostolic see Wikipedia


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