Exarch
ANDREI PSAREV
The Council of Sardica (347) used this term interchangeably with metropolitan to describe senior bishops. By the time of the Council of Chalcedon (451), exarchs, or archbishops, of the capital cities were independent and exercised jurisdictional power beyond the borders of their own civil provinces. When in the 6th century the five major sees evolved into patriarchates, heads of the dependent dioceses continued to be called exarchs. Since the Byzantine period the term has chiefly denoted patriarchal representatives of various ranks, including lay persons. In modern times exarch is most commonly used as a title of the most senior hierarch of an autonomous church entity.
SEE ALSO: Church (Orthodox Ecclesiology); Pentarchy
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Kazhdan, A. P. et al. (1991) “Exarch.” In the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
L’Huillier, P. (2000) The Church of the Ancient Councils. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Pess.
Rodopoulos, P. (2007) An Overview of Orthodox Canon Law. Rollinsford, NH: Orthodox Research Institute.