Exarch

In the Byzantine Empire, an exarch (/ˈɛksɑːrk/; Ancient Greek: ἔξαρχος exarchos) was a governor with extended authority over a province at some distance from the capital Constantinople. The prevailing situation frequently involved him in military operations.

In the Eastern Christian Churches (Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic), the term exarch has two distinct uses: the deputy of a patriarch, or a bishop who holds authority over other bishops without being a patriarch (thus, a position between that of patriarch and metropolitan); or, a bishop appointed over a group of the faithful not yet large enough or organized enough to be constituted an eparchy/diocese (thus the equivalent of a vicar apostolic).

Byzantine Empire

In the civil administration of the Byzantine Roman Empire the exarch was, as stated above, the viceroy of a large and important province. The Exarchates were a response to weakening imperial authority in the provinces and were part of the overall process of unification of civil and military offices, initiated in early form by Justinian I, which would lead eventually to the creation of the Thematic system by either the Emperor Heraclius or Constans II.

After the dissolution of the Western Empire in the late fifth century, the Eastern Roman Empire remained stable through the beginning of the Middle Ages and retained the ability for future expansion. Justinian I reconquered North Africa, Italy, Dalmatia and finally parts of Spain for the Eastern Roman Empire. However, this put an incredible strain on the Empire's limited resources. Subsequent emperors would not surrender the re-conquered land to remedy the situation. Thus the stage was set for Emperor Maurice to establish the Exarchates to deal with the constantly evolving situation of the provinces.

In Italy the Lombards were the main opposition to Byzantine power. In North Africa the Amazigh or Berber princes were ascendant due to Roman weakness outside the coastal cities. The problems associated with many enemies on various fronts (the Visigoths in Spain, the Slavs and Avars in the Balkans, the Sassanid Persians in the Middle East, and the Amazigh in North Africa) forced the imperial government to decentralize and devolve power to the former provinces.

The term Exarch most commonly refers to the Exarch of Italy, who governed the area of Italy and Dalmatia, still remaining under Byzantine control after the Lombard invasion of 568. The exarchate's seat was at Ravenna, whence it is known as the "Exarchate of Ravenna". Ravenna remained the seat of the Exarch until the revolt of 727 over Iconoclasm. Thereafter, the growing menace of the Lombards and the split between eastern and western Christendom that Iconoclasm caused made the position of the Exarch more and more untenable. The last Exarch was killed by the Lombards in 751.

A second exarchate was created by Maurice to administer northern Africa, formerly a separate praetorian prefecture, the islands of the western Mediterranean and the Byzantine possessions in Spain. The capital of the Exarchate of Africa was Carthage. The exarchate proved both financially and militarily strong, and survived until the Arab Muslim conquest of Carthage in 698.

Ecclesiastical exarchs

Early tradition

The term exarch entered ecclesiastical language at first for a metropolitan (a bishop) with jurisdiction not only for the area that was his as a metropolitan, but also over other metropolitans. The Council of Chalcedon (451), which gave special authority to the see of Constantinople, as being "the residence of the emperor and the Senate," still did not use the term "patriarch", but in its ninth canon still spoke only of "exarchs". When the proposed government of universal Christendom by five patriarchal sees (Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, known as the pentarchy), under the auspices of a single universal empire, was formulated in the legislation of Emperor Justinian I (527-565), especially in his Novella 131, and received formal ecclesiastical sanction at the Council in Trullo (692), the name "patriarch" became the official one for the Bishops of these sees, and the title "Exarch" remained the proper style of the metropolitans who ruled over the three remaining (political) dioceses of Diocletian's division of the Eastern Prefecture, namely the Exarchs of Asia (at Ephesus), of Cappadocia and Pontus (at Caesarea), and of Thrace (at Heraclea). The advance of Constantinople put an end to these exarchates, which fell back to the state of ordinary metropolitan sees (Fortescue, Orthodox Eastern Church, 21-25). But the title of exarch was still occasionally used for any Metropolitan (so at Sardica in 343, can. vi).

The principle became that, since no addition should be made to the fixed number of five patriarchs of the pentarchy, any bishop with authority over other bishops who was not dependent on any one of these five should be called an exarch. Thus, since the Church of Cyprus was declared autocephalous (at Ephesus in 431), its Primate received the title of Exarch of Cyprus.

The short-lived medieval Churches of Peć (for Serbia), Ohrid (for Bulgaria) and Tirnova (for Bulgaria), were governed previously by exarchs, though these prelates (of Ohrid occasionally) assumed the title of patriarch (Fortescue, Orthodox Eastern Church, 305 sq. 317 sq., 328 sq.).^{[not in citation given]} On the same principle the Archbishop of Mount Sinai and Raithu is an exarch, though in this case, as in that of Cyprus, modern Orthodox usage generally prefers the title "Archbishop".

Modern Orthodox churches

When the Bulgarians reconstituted their national Church in 1870, they obtained from the Ottoman authorities for its head the title of Exarch, not the highest, that of Patriarch. The Bulgarian Exarch, who resided at Constantinople, was then the most famous bearer of the title; adherents throughout Macedonia were called exarchists, as opposed to the Greek patriarchists.

After imperial Russia destroyed in 1802 the old independent Georgian Church (autocephalous since 750, and whose head was since 1008 styled Catholicos-Patriarchs of Iberia, i.e. the Caucacus), the Primate of Georgia (always a Russian) sat in the Holy Synod at St. Petersburg with the title of Exarch of Georgia (Fortescue, Orthodox Eastern Church, 304-305). On 7 April 1917 the Georgian Patriarchate was restored for the Archbishops of Mtsheta and Tbilisi, with the style Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia; in 1943 its autocephaly was recognized by Russia, and on 3 March 1990 the Georgian Patriarchate was recognized by Constantinople.

After the dismembering of the Ottoman Empire, which like the Byzantine Empire had ruled most of Orthodoxy (allowing quite some autonomy under the millet system - see Ethnarch), the pentarchy-number principle, already abandoned in the case of Russia, gave way to the desire of the now politically independent orthodox nations to see their sovereignty reflected in ecclsiastical autonomy - autocephaly - and the symbolic title to crown it: a 'national' Patriarch. There are now about twenty Patriarchs.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, an Exarch is now a deputy of a Patriarch. In many cases he rules on behalf of the Patriarch a Church outside the home territory of the Patriarchate. Thus, in the United States of America, there are Exarchs representing, among others, the Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian and Jerusalem Patriarchs. The style of the Exarchs of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem is "Exarch of the Holy Sepulcher".

The Mexican Orthodox parishes in five deaneries (Mexico City, D.F., State of Mexico, State of Jalisco, State of Veracruz and State of Chiapas) of the Orthodox Church in America are governed as the "Exarchate of Mexico", currently under the leadership of Bishop Alejo of Mexico City. [1]

The Oriental Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch currently has under his authority an Exarch in India, known by the ancient title Maphrian, although he is popularly referred to as Catholicos. This is not to be confused with the autocephalous Catholicate of the East, which is also located in India.

Bulgarian Exarchate

On 28 February 1870 the twenty-year-old struggle between Greeks and Bulgarians for the control of the Orthodox Church in Bulgaria culminated when the Ottoman Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz created an independent Bulgarian ecclesiastical organisation, known as the Bulgarian Exarchate. The Orthodox Church in Bulgaria had now become independent of the Greek-dominated Patriarchate of Constantinople. The ensuing struggle, waged especially in Macedonia, was not only religious but had a conspicuous political dimension of a contention between competing Greek and Bulgarian national aims. For more information see Bulgarian Exarchate and Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

Sui generis uses

After Russian Emperor Peter the Great abolished the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow in 1702, he appointed, for twenty years before he founded the Russian Holy Synod, an imperial vicegerent with the title of Exarch as president of a temporary governing commission.

The third officer of the court of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, who examines marriage cases (analogous to the Catholic defensor matrimonii), is called the Exarch.

Western (Latin) Catholic Church

Historically, there have been a very few cases of the civil title of Exarch granted by the civil authority to prelates of the Latin Church, as when Emperor Frederick I named the Archbishop of Lyon Exarch of Burgundy in 1157.

However, the ecclesiastical title of Exarch has disappeared in the Western Catholic Church, being replaced by the terms "Primate" (ranking above Metropolitan Archbishop) and "Apostolic Vicar" (ranking below Suffragan Bishop).

Modern Eastern Catholic Churches

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

In Eastern Catholic Churches (of Eastern tradition but in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope), the ecclesiastical title of Exarch is in common use, just as with its Orthodox counterparts.

These Churches are, in general, not identified with a particular liturgical rite. Thus, no less than fourteen of them use the one same Byzantine Rite, mostly in one or other of only two languages, Greek and Church Slavonic, but they maintain their distinct identities. Because of population shifts, half or so of these Churches have not just exarchates but full-scale eparchies (bishoprics) or even archeparchies (archdioceses) outside their original territory.

An Apostolic Exarch is usually a consacrated bishop of a titular see to whom the Pope, as Bishop of the Roman See of the Apostle Peter, has entrusted the pastoral care of the faithful of an autonomous particular Church sui iuris in an area, not raised to the rank of eparchy (diocese), that is situated outside the home territory of an Eastern Catholic Church. An Apostolic Exarch thus corresponds to what in the Latin Church is called a Apostolic Vicar. These exarchates are generally exempt (immediately subject to the Holy See), with limited oversight by the Patriarch, Major Archbishop or Metropolitan in chief of the Eastern Church.

Patriarchs and Major Archbishops may also appoint Exarchs (not always (titular) bishops). These Patriarchal or Archiepiscopal Exarchs are limited to the traditional territory of their church. They may be suffragan to an archdiocese or archeparchy of the Eastern Church, or be immediately subject to the Patriarch or Major Archbishop.

The following Eastern Catholic exarchates can be found in the 2006 Annuario Pontificio and newer sources.^[1]