About

This site lists 7,789 bishops of the Orthodox churches: patriarchs, metropolitans, archbishops and bishops, from the early Church to the present day, in 287 churches, schisms and historical jurisdictions.

Where the data comes from

The records were compiled from church directories, see catalogues and reference works, and are being checked and extended against published sources: the Moscow Patriarchate's directory (patriarchia.ru), the catalogue of the Greek-speaking churches' bishops at markmarkou.sites.sch.gr, Wikidata, Wikipedia in several languages, and the churches' own sites. Where a record's sources have been recorded, they are listed at the foot of its page, with links to the hierarch's Wikidata and patriarchia.ru entries where those exist.

Reading the dates

A date is given as precisely as the sources allow: "5 July 1915", "July 1915" or "1915". "ca." marks an approximate date, and a century ("17th c.") a date known only to the century. "Date unknown" means the event happened but its date is not known; "present" means a see is still held.

Consecrations and lines of succession

A bishop is consecrated by other bishops, usually two or more. Where the sources name them, each record lists its consecrators, and each consecrator's page lists the bishops he consecrated. There are 15,838 such links in the data.

Following consecrators back from bishop to bishop traces a line of succession. Every bishop has several such lines; each page shows the one that the data can follow furthest back, choosing at each step the consecrator whose own line reaches furthest back in time. Links that the dates contradict (a consecrator recorded as consecrated after the bishop) are not followed. Where a line stops, the earlier consecrators are not yet in the data, not unknown to history. The network view shows every consecrator and every bishop consecrated, a few generations up and down.

Sees

A see's page lists its bishops in the order they took it up. Vicar bishops are listed under their vicariate, with the diocese it belongs to. Gaps in a see's list are periods the data does not yet cover.

Errors and gaps

The data is curated by hand and checked against its sources, but it still has errors and gaps.