Patriarchal Vicar

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A Patriarchal Vicar is, in the Church of Antioch, the title given to a bishop who is in charge of a newly-created diocese of behalf of, and under the supervision of, the Patriarch. In some jurisdictions, a similar effect is achieved by naming an auxiliary bishop as administrator of a diocese.


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In the Antiochian Church when a diocese is newly created it is usually kept under the direct control of the patriarch until it becomes self-supporting.

When the diocese is capable of being self-supporting, it is usually granted a bishop who administers in his own right. The bishop is thus a ruling bishop who has the right to sit on the Holy Synod as a full member.

Patriarchal Vicars are not members of the Holy Synod.

When a self-supporting diocese achieves sufficient standing it may be elevated to archdiocese. The ruling bishop of an archdiocese is always an archbishop or a metropolitan.

In the Antiochian Church a metropolitan ranks higher than an archbishop, in accordance with original Church practice. A metropolitan is often called metropolitan archbishop to differentiate him from the metropolitan bishops now found in the Greek Churches.

In the Latin-rite Catholic Church the equivalent is a Vicar Apostolic