Exarch (church)

Antim I, exarca de Bulgaria

The word exarch is used to signify an ecclesiastical dignity and is taken in respect of the bishop of the principal city of a diocese, that is to say, of many provinces, which they call the Latin Primates.

In the East, there were as many exarchs as dioceses. Mention is made of such exarchs at the Council of Chalcedon, but afterwards the exarchs of Asia and of Pontus were extinguished because the bishop of Constantinople seized his jurisdiction, so that in the East, only Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch, enjoyed the rights of exarchs with the title of patriarchs. Those that at present are called exarchs among the Greeks are very different from the old sayings. The word exarch does not mean to the present anything between them, but deputy or delegate. Such is the title given by the patriarch to those in which he delegates for ecclesiastical business, for example, those which the patriarcha sends to various provinces to see if ecclesiastical canons are observed in them, if the bishops fulfill their obligation and if the monks they observe the rule, they are called exarchs, although in fact they are but visitors or deputies for certain and certain businesses.

The great historical dictionary, Louis Moreri, 1753

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