Archimandrite (Greek: ἀρχιμανδρίτης - archimandrites) is a title in the Greek Orthodox Church for a superior abbot who has the supervision of several abbots and monasteries appointed by a bishop. The title has been in use since the 5th century, with some evidence of the 4th century usage.
When the monastic supervision was passed to another episcopal official, Great Sakellarios ("sacristan"), the title of archimandrite became a honorary one for abbots of important monasteries, the title for an ordinary abbot being hegumenos.
In 1874 the Russian monasteries were secularized and classified into three classes, and the head of a monastery of the second or first class is called archimandrite.
The term derives from the Greek ἀρχι- (archi-) meaning "highest" and μάνδρα (mandra) meaning "enclosure", or "pen" to denote "monastery" (cf. the usage of "flock" for "congregation").
Archimandrite (Greek: ἀρχιμανδρίτης — archimandrites) is a title in the Eastern Orthodox Church for a superior abbot who has the supervision of several abbots and monasteries appointed by a bishop.
When the monastic supervision was passed to another episcopal official, Great Sakellarios ("sacristan"), the title of archimandrite became a honorary one for abbots of important monasteries, the title for an ordinary abbot being hegumenos.
An Archimandrite who is not the abbot of a monastery is styled "The Very Reverend Archimandrite" and one who is an abbot is styled "The Right Reverend Archimandrite".
Originally the archimandrite seems to have been only the superior or abbot of his own monastery; gradually, however, he came to exercise authority over a number of monasteries and by the eleventh the archimandrites of such monastic centres as Mount Athos, and Mount Olympus in Bithynia, were the equivalent of our Western abbots-general.
The archimandrite is appointed by ecclesiastical authority (patriarch, metropolitan, bishop), also in Russia, by the Holy Synod, and in some monasteries by election.
Archimandrites enjoy the right of precedency among other priests; among themselves this right is regulated by the dignity of their origin; thus an archimandrite of Constantinople outranks those of inferior episcopal appointments.
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