Catholicos (redirected from Katolikos)

Catholicos 

the title of the head of the Armenian (since 363), Georgian (since 475), and Caucasian Albanian (since 552) churches.

The Armenian catholicos became the primate of the merged Albanian and Armenian churches; he now bears the title of supreme patriarch and catholicos of all the Armenians and has his residence in Echmiadzin (in the Armenian SSR). Subordinate to him is the Armenian catholicos of Cilicia, as well as the Armenian patriarchs of Jerusalem and Constantinople. Beginning in 475 the head of the Georgian church bore the title of catholicos of Kartli; later (beginning in the 17th century) he was called catholicos of all Georgia. Between 1811 and 1917 there was no catholicos in Georgia; the office was restored in 1917, with the residence in Tbilisi. The title of catholicos is also borne by the head of the Monophysite Church; in addition there is a catholicos of the Armenian Catholics (residence in Beirut).