STAUROPEGION

STAUROPEGION. The term comes from the Greek, stauropegein, which means literally, “the planting or pitching of a cross.” The term appears in the 10th c. to signify property, in particular monasteries, under the jurisdiction of the patriarch and thus not subject to the local bishop. This closely parallels contemporary monasteries in the West, notably Cluny, seeking direct papal jurisdiction in order to escape the depredations of their local church and feudal hierarchies. The system of stavropegeia has since been extended to other local churches in the Orthodox oikoumene (q.v.). Hence stavropegial means today that the institution in question is under the direct supervision of the local primate.