Orthodox bishops in 1859

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by

Matthew Namee
in ,

I ran across this the other day — in 1859, there were 278 Orthodox bishops in the world:

Church Bishops
Constantinople (including Romania, Bulgaria, and part of Serbia) 136
Russia (including Georgia) 65
Greece 24
Antioch 17
Jerusalem 14
Austria (now Serbia, mostly) 11
Alexandria 5
Cyprus 4
Mount Sinai 1
Montenegro 1
TOTAL 278

Source: J.M. Neale, trans., Voices from the East: Documents on the Present State and Working of the Oriental Church (London: Joseph Masters, 1859). Google Books has the whole thing available for free. If you go there and find those numbers, they’ll look a bit different, because I added in the four patriarchs at the time (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem).

Comments

5 responses to “Orthodox bishops in 1859”

  1. Procopius Avatar
    Procopius

    You can find their names here:

    http://books.google.com/books?id=pWgQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA131#v=onepage&q&f=false

    Reply
  2. Isa Almisry Avatar
    Isa Almisry

    Looking at the numbers of Alexandria, I’m wondering if they are counting vacant sees. When Pope Photios, for instance, half a century asserted the independence of the Church against the Phanar, he solved the problem of not having enough bishops, i.e. <3, to consecrate successors-and therefore depend on the Phanar to supply them-by filling sees, and then forbidding the Phanar's representative from setting foot in Egypt (then independent from the Porte in all but name, and a British Protectorate).

    Reply
  3. How many Orthodox bishops are in the world? – Orthodox History

    […] to the 19th century, that’s a big increase — in 1859, we had just 278 bishops worldwide. But at the time of the First Ecumenical Council, there were a reported 1,800 bishops in the world […]

    Reply
  4. Evpatiy Avatar
    Evpatiy

    On what basis are Ukrainian bishops added to the Russian church?

    Reply
    1. Matthew Namee Avatar
      Matthew Namee

      The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is an autonomous church under the Moscow Patriarchate. It received autonomy in the early 1990s.

      Reply

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