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A '''stavropegial''' (also spelled '''stavropigial''' or '''stavropighial''') institution, usually a monastery, is one which falls directly under the [[omophorion]] of the [[primate]] of a church rather than under the local [[diocese|diocesan]] [[bishop]].
The Greek term σταυροπηγιον σταυροπηγιον literally means "fixture of a cross," and referred to crosses used to mark boundary points. In the liturgical context, a stavropegion was a cross fixed by the bishop on the side of a new [[church]]. The term came to be employed mainly to refer to [[monastery|monasteries]] which owed canonical allegiance to the [[Patriarch of Constantinople]].
In a number of Byzantine documents from the 10th to 14th centuries, the term ''stavropegial'' was used roughly synonymously with ''patriarchal'' when referring to monastic communities of this sort, though in some cases, the two terms were distinguished, with ''stavropegial'' referring only to those monasteries which had actually been founded by the patriarch.
Stavropegial monasteries in the Byzantine period acknowledged the authority of the [[patriarch ]] as their bishop, commemorated him in liturgical services, and paid him the [[kanonikon]], an ecclesiastical tax which provided a significant source of income for the patriarchate.
==Source==
*''Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'', pp. 1946-47
[[Category:Church Life]]
[[ro:Stavropighie]]
