EPARCH

EPARCH. Originally a Byzantine imperial title-e.g., the “Eparch of the City”-eparch today is used in the Russian and Uniate Slav churches to mean a diocesan bishop, the local “ordinary” in Roman Catholic terms. Similarly in these communities, a diocese is known as an “eparchy.” During the period of the Ecumenical Councils (q.v.) the word eparchy was also used to refer to an ecclesiastical province, a metropolitanate, or an exarchate.