The patriarchate traces its line of succession to the first Christian bishops of Jerusalem, the first being James the Just in the 1st century AD. Jerusalem was granted autocephaly in 451 by the Council of Chalcedon and in 531 became one of the initial five patriarchates.
During the first Christian centuries the church at this place (referring to the cenacle) was the centre of Christianity in Jerusalem, "Holy and glorious Sion, mother of all churches". Certainly no spot in Christendom can be more venerable than the place of the Last Supper, which became the first Christian church.[3]
In the Apostolic Age the Christian Church was organized as an indefinite number of local Churches that in the initial years looked to that at Jerusalem as its main centre and point of reference. James the Just, who was martyred around 62, is described as the first bishop of Jerusalem. Roman persecutions following the Jewish revolts against Rome in the later 1st and 2nd centuries also affected the city's Christian community, and led to Jerusalem gradually being eclipsed in prominence by other sees, particularly those of Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome. However, increased pilgrimage during and after the reign of Constantine the Great increased the fortunes of the see of Jerusalem, and in 325 the First Council of Nicaea attributed special honor, but not metropolitan status (then the highest rank in the Church), to the bishop of Jerusalem.[4] Jerusalem continued to be a bishopric until 451, when the Council of Chalcedon granted Jerusalem independence from the metropolitan of Antioch and from any other higher-ranking bishop, granted what is now known as autocephaly, in the council's seventh session whose "Decree on the Jurisdiction of Jerusalem and Antioch" contains: "the bishop of Jerusalem, or rather the most holy Church which is under him, shall have under his own power the three Palestines".[5] This led to Jerusalem becoming a patriarchate, one of the five patriarchates known as the pentarchy, when the title of "patriarch" was created in 531 by Justinian I.[6][7]
The number of Eastern Orthodox Christians in the Holy Land is estimated to be about 200,000. A majority of Church members are PalestinianArabs, and there are also a small number of Assyrians, Greeks and Georgians.
The Council of Chalcedon in 451 raised the bishop of Jerusalem to the rank of patriarch (see Pentarchy). However, Byzantine politics meant that Jerusalem passed from the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Antioch to the Greek authorities in Constantinople. For centuries, Eastern Orthodox clergy, such as the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre, dominated the Jerusalem church.
Juvenal (451–458); Theodosius was the anti-Chalcedonian counter-bishop (451–453), in opposition to Juvenal.[8]
As a result of the First Crusade in 1099, a Latin Patriarchate was created, with residence in Jerusalem from 1099 to 1187. Eastern Orthodox patriarchs continued to be appointed, but resided in Constantinople.
In 1187, the Latin patriarch was forced to flee the city of Jerusalem due to the Muslim reconquest of Jerusalem. The office remained and appointments continued to be made by the Catholic Church, with the Latin patriarch residing in the Frankish-controlled Levant until 1374, and subsequently in Rome until modern times. The Eastern Orthodox patriarchs at this period were.
^"Since there prevails a custom and ancient tradition to the effect that the bishop of Aelia is to be honored, let him be granted everything consequent upon this honor, saving the dignity proper to the metropolitan" (Canon 7)
^The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, s.v. patriarch (ecclesiastical), also calls it "a title dating from the 6th century, for the bishops of the five great sees of Christendom". And Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions says: "Five patriarchates, collectively called the pentarchy, were the first to be recognized by the legislation of the emperor Justinian (reigned 527–565)".
^The ROC severed full communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2018, and later severed full communion with the primates of the Church of Greece, the Patriarchate of Alexandria, and the Church of Cyprus in 2020.
^ abcdefghAutocephaly or autonomy is not universally recognized.
^UOC-MP was moved to formally cut ties with the ROC as of May 27th 2022.
^ abSemi-autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church whose autonomy is not universally recognized.
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