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A catholicos (plural: catholicoi) is the head of certain Christian Church in some Eastern Christian traditions. The title implies autocephaly and, in some cases, it is the title of the head of an autonomous church. The word comes from ancient Greek καθολικός ( καθολικοί), derived from καθ' ὅλου (, "generally") from κατά (, "down") and ὅλος (, "whole"), meaning "concerning the whole, universal, general"; it originally designated a financial or civil office in the Roman Empire.Wigram, p. 91.
The Church of the East, some Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic churches historically use this title;The Motu Proprio Cleri Sanctitati Canon 335 for example the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Georgian Orthodox Church. In the Church of the East, the title was given to the church's head, the patriarch of the Church of the East; it is still used in two successor churches, the Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East, the heads of which are known as catholicos-patriarchs. In the Armenian Church there are two catholicoi: the supreme catholicos of Ejmiadzin and the catholicos of Cilicia. The title catholicos-patriarchs is also used by the primate of the Armenian Catholic Church. In India, an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox Church and the regional head of Jacobite Syrian Christian Church (an autonomous Church within Syriac Orthodox Church) use this title. The first is the catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan, and the latter the catholicos of India, but according to the constitution of the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church.
Sometime later, it was adopted by the Grand metropolitans of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in Persia, who became the designated heads of the Church of the East. The first claim that the bishop of Selucia-Ctesiphon was superior to the other bishoprics and had (using a later term) patriarchal rights was made by Patriarch Papa bar Aggai (c. 317 – c. 329). In the 5th century this claim was strengthened and Isaac (or Ishaq, 399 – c. 410), who organized the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, used the title of bishop of Selucia-Ctesiphon, Catholicos and Head over the bishops of all the Orient. This line of Catholicos founded the Church of the East and the development of the East Syriac Rite.
At the beginning of the fourth century, Albania and Georgia (Iberia) were converted to Christianity, and the principal bishop of each of these countries bore the title of catholicos, although neither of them was autocephalous. They followed the Armenians in rejecting the Council of Chalcedon. At the end of the sixth or beginning of the seventh century, the Georgian catholicos asserted his independence and accepted Eastern Orthodoxy. Henceforward the Georgian Church underwent the same evolutions as the Greek. In 1783 Georgia was forced to abolish the office of its catholicos, and place itself under the Most Holy Synod of Russia, to which country it was united politically in 1801. The Albanian catholicos remained loyal to the Armenian Church, with the exception of a brief schism towards the end of the sixth century. Shortly afterwards, Albania was assimilated partly with Armenia and partly with Georgia. There is no mention of any catholicos in Albania after the seventh century. It is asserted by some that the head of the Abyssinian Church, the abuna, also bears the title of catholicos, but, although this name may have been applied to him by analogy, there is, to our knowledge, no authority for asserting that this title is used by the Abyssinian Church itself.
It is one of the three churches of the East that hold themselves distinct from Oriental and Eastern Orthodoxy. It is often called the Chaldean Syrian Church in India. The church declares that no other church has suffered as many martyrdoms as the Assyrian Church of the East.
The founders of Assyrian theology were Diodorus of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia, who taught at Antioch. The normative Christology of the Assyrian church was written by Babai the Great (551–628) and is distinct from the accusations directed toward Nestorius. Babay's main Christological work is called the Book of the Union and in it, he teaches that the two (essences or hypostases) are unmingled but everlastingly united in the or hypostatic union.
Today, the title is known as Maphrian of India or Catholicos of India of the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church headquartered at Puthencruz near Kochi in Kerala is an integral branch of Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch headed by Ignatius Aphrem II Patriarch of Antioch. The current catholicos of the church is Baselios Joseph.
As of March 14, 2022, Raphaël Bedros XXI Minassian is the catholicos-patriarch of the Armenian Catholic Church. His full title is officially " Catholicos-Patriarch of the House of Cilicia".
, Louis Raphaël I Sako is the Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans.
He is referred to as catholicos of the Syro Malankara Catholic Church. In this context, the use of the title "Catholicos" indicates parity between him and his peers in the autocephalous Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and in the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, which remains part of the Syriac Orthodox Church.
Catholicos in various churches
Autocephalous churches of East
The following are autocephaly churches of East Syriac Rite that claim succession to the Catholicos of the East of Selucia-Ctesiphon of the Church of the East. Referred to as "Nestorianism" in Western world texts, the term Nestorian was formally renounced in 1976 by Mar Dinkha IV.
Assyrian Church of the East
, Awa III is the catholicos-patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East. One of the oldest Christian churches, it is a modern successor of the historical Church of the East. It traces its origins to the See of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in central Mesopotamia, which tradition holds was founded by Thomas the Apostle as well as Mari of Edessa and Addai of Edessa in the year 33 as asserted in the Doctrine of Addai.
Ancient Church of the East
, Addai II is the catholicos of the Ancient Church of the East, which split from the Assyrian Church of the East in the 1960s.
Eastern Orthodox Church
Georgian Orthodox Church
The title of catholicos is also used in the Georgian Church, whose head carries the title Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia.
Oriental Orthodox Churches
Armenian Apostolic Church
In the Armenian Church there are two catholicoi: the supreme catholicos of Etchmiadzin and the catholicos of Cilicia. The Catholicos of Etchmiadzin presides over the Supreme Spiritual Council of the Armenian Apostolic Church and is the head of the world's 7 million Armenian Apostolic Christians. The primacy of honour of the Catholicosate of Etchmiadzin has always been recognized by the Catholicosate of Cilicia.
Until the 19th century, there were also two other high-ranking Armenian clergymen who held the title of catholicos: the Catholicos of Albania (also known as the Catholicos of Gandzasar) and the Catholicos of Aghtamar.
Syriac Orthodox Church
In the seventh century, the Syriac Orthodox Christians who lived in Persia began using the title for its maphrian, who was originally the head of the Syriac Orthodox Christian community in Persia. This office ranked second in the Syriac Orthodox church hierarchy after the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, until it was abolished in 1860 and reinstated in the India of the East on 1964.
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church
According to the constitution of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (Indian Orthodox Church) the head or primate bears the title Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan. The church is based at Devalokam near Kottayam in Kerala. As of 2021, the current head is Baselios Marthoma Mathews III. He is currently the 9th catholicos of the East since it was relocated to India and 92nd Primate on the Apostolic throne of Saint Thomas.
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
In 1959, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria granted autocephaly to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Abuna Basilios was consecrated the first patriarch-catholicos of the Ethiopian Church by the Coptic Pope Cyril VI at St. Mark's Cathedral in Cairo on 28 June 1959. The title is "Patriarch and Catholicos of Ethiopia, Ichege of the See of St. Tekle Haymanot, Archbishop of Axum".
Catholic Church
Some Eastern Catholic Churches use the title "Catholicos".
Armenian Catholic Church
The leader of the Armenian Catholic Church (of Armenian Rite), in full communion with the Pope, uses the title "Catholicos".
Chaldean Catholic Church
The Chaldean Catholic Church (of East Syriac Rite) is in full communion with the Pope. Although derived from the historical Church of the East, whose leader was initially styled Major Metropolitan and Catholicos and later Patriarch (see Church of the East#Organisation and structure), it seems to use only the title of "Patriarch".
Syro-Malankara Catholic Church
The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church of West Syriac Rite in full communion with the Pope is a major archiepiscopal church, a rank granted to the Eastern Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II on 10 February 2005. Accordingly it is headed by major archbishop Moran Mor Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Catholica Bava since 2007.
Sources
William Ainger Wigram (2025). 9780837080789, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. . ISBN 9780837080789
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