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  Catholicos

  noun

  the patriarch of the Armenian Church

catholicos

American  

[kuh-thol-i-kuhs, -kos] / kəˈθɒl ɪ kəs, -ˌkɒs /

noun

• catholicoses,
  plural
• catholicoi
  plural

1. (often initial capital letter)

   1. any of the heads of certain autocephalous churches.

   2. (in some autocephalous churches) a primate subject to a patriarch and having authority over metropolitans.

2. (in the early Christian church) the head of monasteries in the same city.

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Catholicos British  

/ kəˈθɒlɪkɒs /

noun

1. the patriarch of the Armenian Church

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• catholicoi
  plural
• catholicoses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of catholicos

1615–25; < Late Greek katholikós, noun use of Greek adj.; see catholic

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

catholicos Catholicos

Council after council, theologian, catholicos, monastery, bishop, alike denounced Justinian; and they had the support of the pagan philosophers whom he had expelled from the schools of Athens.

From The Church and the Barbarians Being an Outline of the History of the Church from A.D. 461 to A.D. 1003 by William Holden Hutton

Those who dwelt nearest to Baghdad met the catholicos in yearly synod; those farthest off sent their confession of faith to him every sixth year.

From The Church and the Barbarians Being an Outline of the History of the Church from A.D. 461 to A.D. 1003 by William Holden Hutton

In Armenia, similarly, had grown up a national Church, which had a catholicos, a hierarchy, a vernacular liturgy of its own.

From The Church and the Barbarians Being an Outline of the History of the Church from A.D. 461 to A.D. 1003 by William Holden Hutton

The dignity of the Persian catholicos was considerable; he might be compared with the Byzantine patriarchs, and the Church almost occupied the position of an established religion, related to the civil power.

From The Church and the Barbarians Being an Outline of the History of the Church from A.D. 461 to A.D. 1003 by William Holden Hutton

Under the Church's by-laws, only monks who took a vow of celibacy can be elected a Catholicos.

From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2025

If true, Pashinyan's allegation would make the Catholicos unfit for office.

From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2025

Armenian Apostolic Church head Catholicos Garegin II and other top clerics have called for him to step down.

From Washington Times ● Jan. 6, 2021

Now that's changing and Catholicos Karekin II came to Yangon to try to resolve a dispute over the management of the church and its property.

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2014

And the priest of the Christians is called "Catholicos" in the Greek tongue, because he presides alone over the whole region.

From History of the Wars, Books I and II The Persian War by H. B. Dewing