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The pope (Latin: papa, from Ancient Greek: πάππας, romanized: páppas, lit. 'father') [2] [3] is the bishop of Rome and the visible head [a] of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, [b] Roman pontiff, [c] or sovereign pontiff.
The word pope is derived ultimately from the Greek πάππας [1] (páppas [2]) originally an affectionate term meaning "father", later referring to a bishop or patriarch. [3] The earliest record of the use of this title is in regard to the Patriarch of Alexandria , Pope Heraclas of Alexandria (232–248) [ 4 ] [ 5 ] in a letter written by ...
Plaque commemorating the popes buried in St. Peter's Basilica (their names in Latin and the year of their burial). This chronological list of popes of the Catholic Church corresponds to that given in the Annuario Pontificio under the heading "I Sommi Pontefici Romani" (The Roman Supreme Pontiffs), excluding those that are explicitly indicated as antipopes.
The first record of a title reflecting the pope's role as "Vicar" is found in a letter of 445 from Pope Leo I (r. 440–461) to Dioscorus of Alexandria, in which he designates the bishop of Rome as "earthly Vicar of the successors of Peter"; [10] shortly afterward, in 495, there were decrees of a synod named Pope Gelasius I (r. 492–496 ...
The official Catholic position, as Eamon Duffy points out in his book Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes, is that Jesus had essentially appointed Peter as the first pope, [8] though the respectful title "pope" (meaning "father") developed at a later time.
The Byzantine Papacy was a period of return to Imperial domination of the papacy from 537 to 752, when popes required the approval of the Byzantine Emperors for episcopal consecration, and many popes were chosen from the apocrisiarii (liaisons from the pope to the emperor) or the inhabitants of Byzantine Greece, Syria, or Sicily.
The official style of the Catholic pope in English is "His Holiness Pope [papal name]". 'Holy Father' is another honorific often used for popes. The full title, rarely used, of the Catholic pope in English is: "His Holiness [papal name], Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and ...
This office has historically held the title of Pope—Πάπας (Papas), which means "Father" in Greek and Coptic—since Pope Heraclas of Alexandria, the 13th Alexandrine Bishop (227–248), was the first to associate "Pope" with the title of the Bishop of Alexandria. The word pope derives from the Greek πάππας "father". In the early ...