"True wealth is of the heart,not of the purse." 
PATH ROS
Patriarch of Anticoh &All the East,1846-'94
Patriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the
Bishop of
Antioch. As the traditional "overseer" (ἐπίσκοπος,
episkopos, from which the word
bishop is derived) of the first gentile Christian community, the position has been of prime importance in the church from its
earliest period.
This diocese is one of the few for which the names of its bishops from
the apostolic beginnings have been preserved. Today five churches use
the title of Patriarch of Antioch: the
Syriac Orthodox Church and
Syriac Catholic Church, the
Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch,
Melkite Greek Catholic Church, and
Maronite Church; and, historically, there has also been a
Latin Patriarch of Antioch.
According to church tradition, this ancient Patriarchate was founded by the
Apostle Saint Peter. The patriarchal succession was disputed at the time of the
Meletian schism in 362 and again after the
Council of Chalcedon in 451, when there were rival
Melkite and
non-Chalcedonian claimants to the see. After a 7th-century succession dispute in the Melkite church, the
Maronites began appointing a
Maronite Patriarch as well. After the
First Crusade, the Catholic Church began appointing a
Latin Rite Patriarch of Antioch, though this became strictly
titular after the
Fall of Antioch
in 1268, and was abolished completely in 1964. In the 18th century,
succession disputes in the Greek Orthodox and Syriac Orthodox Churches
of Antioch led to factions of those churches entering into communion
with Rome under claimants to the patriarchate: the
Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and the
Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, respectively
