What is the meaning of the word “Catholicos,” and “Catholicon,”?
Between the Magazine and the Readers
Question:
What is the meaning of the word “Catholicos,” and “Catholicon,” and are their derivatives also inclusive of “Catholicism”?
Answer:
The word Catholicos is a Greek word meaning that which is comprehensive or universal. It has been used in the Church with several meanings. Among them is the Apostolic (Catholic) Church, and we use for it the word “Catholic,” which is the feminine form of Catholicos, and it is applied to the entire Church from the ends of the inhabited world to its ends. The Catholics have taken this designation for themselves, just as we have taken for ourselves the designation “Orthodox,” meaning “sound in opinion.”
From this derivation also comes the word Catholicon, which is one of the inflected forms of Catholicos, and we apply it in the Church readings to the Catholic Epistles, such as the Epistles of John the Apostle, Peter the Apostle, James the Apostle, and Jude the Apostle.
The word Catholicos has also been used in ecclesiastical ranks for one who has general and universal authority, that is, the head of the Church. In Arabic it is also rendered as Jathliq. Examples of this include the Catholicos of the Armenians, whether in Armenia or in Lebanon. Likewise, the Catholicos of India, that is, the chief priest there as a representative of the Holiness of the Patriarch of Antioch. And for years Ethiopia had a Catholicos as a representative of the Pope in Alexandria.
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Fifth Year – Tenth Issue – 7 December 1974
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