Patriarchate

Patriarchate (Greek: , "patriarcheîon") is an ecclesiological term in Christianity, designating the office and jurisdiction of an ecclesiastical patriarch.
Three patriarchates were established by the apostles as apostolic sees in the 1st century: Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria. Added to these were Constantinople in the 4th century, and Jerusalem in the 5th century. Eventually, together, these five were recognised as the pentarchy by the Council of Ephesus in 431.
In the rest of the history of Christianity, a few other patriarchates were gradually recognised by any of these above ancient episcopal sees. With time, eventually some of them fell due to military occupations following the Islamic conquests of the Middle East and North Africa, and became titular or honorary patriarchates with no actual institutional jurisdiction on the original site.
History.
Pentarchy.
Five ancient patriarchates of the Pentarchy, headed by patriarchs as the highest-ranking bishops in the Christian Church prior to the Great Schism, were the patriarchates of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The East-West Schism of 1054 split the Latin-rite see of Rome from the four Byzantine-rite patriarchates of the East, thus forming distinct Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.
The four Eastern Orthodox patriarchates (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem), along with their Latin Catholic counterpart in the West, Rome, are distinguished as "senior" (Greek: πρεσβυγενή, "presbygenē", "senior-born") or "ancient" (παλαίφατα, "palèphata", "of ancient fame") and are among the apostolic sees, having had one of the Apostles or Evangelists as their first bishop: Andrew, Mark, Peter, James, and Peter again, respectively. In the case of Constantinople, Apostle Andrew had visited the city of Byzantium in 38 AD, not Constantinople, as the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great had not yet declared Constantinople in 330 AD as the new capital of the Roman Empire on the grounds of the former city of Byzantium. Apostle Andrew appointed the bishop Stachys the Apostle who remained bishop in Byzantium until 54 AD. Therefore in the case of Constantinople the Apostolic See is the See of Byzantium.
Catholic Church.
There are seven current patriarchates within the Catholic Church: six are patriarchates of Eastern Catholic Churches, and the pope is effectively patriarch of the Latin Church, even if the title "Patriarch of the West" is no longer used. 
There are also four [[major archbishops]], who operate as patriarch of their autonomous church, but for historical or procedural reasons are not recognized as a full patriarch. The main difference being that a patriarch's election is communicated to the pope, as a sign of communion between equals, but a major archbishop's election must be approved by the pope. 
In addition, there are four titular patriarchates - diocesan bishops whose dioceses have been given the honorific title of patriarchate for various historical reasons, but are not heads of autonomous churches sui iuris, and these include the [[Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem]]), of [[Patriarch of Lisbon|Lisbon]], [[Patriarch of Venice|Venice]] and the [[Patriarch of the East Indies|East Indies]].
Some of the Eastern Catholic patriarchates are active on the same territories. Damascus is the seat of the [[Syriac Catholic Church|Syriac Catholic]] and the [[Melkite Catholic]] Patriarchates of Antioch, while the [[Maronite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch]] has see in Bkerké, Lebanon.
Eastern Orthodox Church.
[[File:1800 Wilkinson Map of the 4 Eastern Churches rectified.jpg|thumb|left|Eastern patriarchates of the [[Pentarchy]], after the [[Council of Chalcedon]] (451)]]
Nine of the current autocephalous [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]es, including the four ancient churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem mentioned above, are organized as patriarchates. In chronological order of establishment, the other five are: [[Bulgarian Orthodox Church|Bulgarian Patriarchate]] (the oldest one following the [[Pentarchy]]), [[Georgian Orthodox Church|Georgian Patriarchate]], [[Serbian Orthodox Church|Serbian Patriarchate]], [[Russian Orthodox Church|Russian Patriarchate]] and [[Romanian Orthodox Church|Romanian Patriarchate]].
The [[Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch]] moved its headquarters to [[Damascus]] in the 13th century, during the reign of the [[Egypt]]ian [[Mamluk|Mamelukes]], conquerors of [[Syria]]. Christian community had flourished in Damascus since [[Apostolic Age|apostolic]] times ([[Acts of the Apostles|Acts]] 9). However, the patriarchate is still called the Patriarchate of Antioch.
A patriarchate has [[Juristic person|"legal personality"]] in some legal [[Jurisdiction#Power of a court of law|jurisdictions]], that means it is treated as a [[corporation]]. For example, the [[Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem]] filed a lawsuit in [[New York (state)|New York]], decided in 1999, against [[Christie's|Christie's Auction House]], disputing the ownership of the [[Archimedes Palimpsest]].
Oriental Orthodoxy.
There are several patriarchates within the [[Oriental Orthodoxy]].
Church of the East.
There are also among the branches of the [[Church of the East]].
Protestantism.
The head of the [[Czechoslovak Hussite Church]] is also called a Patriarch.
External links.
[[Category:Church patriarchs| ]]