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    Published: 2025-12-281
    Vol. 67 No. 1 (2025)

    The concept of autocephaly in the Eastern Church up to the 13th Century

    Adam Magruk

    Ikona ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9468-624X

    Metropolita Sawa (Michał Hrycuniak)

    Ikona ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2475-8660
    Ikona DOI https://doi.org/10.36124/rt.2025.03

    Abstract

    The article presents an analysis of the concept of “autocephaly” in linguistic, historical, and canonical contexts, tracing its evolution up to the 13th century. The study focuses on the etymological origins of the term, already present in the 34th Apostolic Canon, and its institutional development from the early autocephalous archbishoprics (7th century – 33, before the fall of Constantinople – 80) to the formal establishment of the status of autocephalous Churches. The key stages of this development are examined: its canonization at the Council of Nicaea (325), the model of the pentarchy, the interpretations of Theodore Balsamon (12th century), among others. The paper documents the transformation of the concept from political connotations (sui iuris) toward a strictly canonical and ecclesiological meaning.

    Keywords:

    autocephaly, autocephalous archbishop, Constantinople, Church Cyprus, canons

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    Magruk, A., & (Michał Hrycuniak), M. S. (2025). The concept of autocephaly in the Eastern Church up to the 13th Century. Theological Yearbook, 67(1), 51–62. https://doi.org/10.36124/rt.2025.03

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