Back Seu bispal AN كرسي أسقفية Arabic Seu episcopal Catalan Bischofssitz German Επισκοπική έδρα Greek Episkopejo Esperanto Sede episcopal Spanish سریر اسقف Persian Piispanistuin Finnish Évêché French

Episcopal see

The seat or cathedra of the Bishop of Rome in the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran

An episcopal see is, in a practical use of the phrase,[clarification needed] the area of a bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction.[1][2]

Phrases concerning actions occurring within or outside an episcopal see are indicative of the geographical significance of the term, making it synonymous with diocese.[3][4][5][6]

The word see is derived from Latin sedes, which in its original or proper sense denotes the seat or chair that, in the case of a bishop, is the earliest symbol of the bishop's authority.[7] This symbolic chair is also known as the bishop's cathedra. The church in which it is placed is for that reason called the bishop's cathedral, from Latin ecclesia cathedralis, meaning the 'church of the cathedra'. The word throne is also used, especially in the Eastern Orthodox Church, both for the chair and for the area of ecclesiastical jurisdiction.[8]

The term see is also used of the town where the cathedral or the bishop's residence is located.[7]

  1. ^ "Dictionary : Episcopal See". www.catholicculture.org. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  2. ^ "Church of England – Episcopal See of Gibraltar – Question. (Hansard, 12 August 1876)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  3. ^ "Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Little Malvern | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  4. ^ The Church of England, Together in Mission and Ministry (Church House Publishing 1993 ISBN 978-0-71515750-3), p. 103
  5. ^ "Ordinance of William I Separating the Spiritual and Temporal Courts". avalon.law.yale.edu. 29 December 1998. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  6. ^ Saint Augustine, Sermons on the Liturgical Seasons (CUA Press 2010 ISBN 978-0-81321138-1), p. ix
  7. ^ a b Cross, F. L.; Livingstone, E. A., eds. (2009). "See". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd revised ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0192802903.
  8. ^ For instance, Communiqué of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

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