A stauropegion, also spelled stavropegion (from Greek: σταυροπήγιον from σταυρός stauros "cross" and πήγνυμι pegnumi "to affirm"), is a monastery or a parish which depends directly on the primate or on the Holy Synod of a particular Church, and which is not under the jurisdiction of the local bishop. The name comes from the Byzantine tradition of summoning the Patriarch to place a cross at the foundation of stauropegic monasteries or parochial churches.[1]
The practice of exempting some monasteries from jurisdictions of local bishops, placing them under a direct jurisdiction of the patriarch, was present at least since the reign of Byzantine Emperor Maurice (582-602). Such exemptions became more common after the Council of Constantinople (861). In time, those practices included not only monasteries, but also various parochial churches, to the extent that authorities had to regulate the issue by imposing stricter criteria for the creation of such exemptions.[2][3]
Stauropegic monasteries are distinguished from the greatest monasteries, called lavras, and from the patriarchal metochions, where the patriarch serves as a parish priest. The metochions of the Patriarch of Moscow are the Vysokopetrovsky Monastery and Nikolo-Perervinsky Monastery.
The Greek custom, first introduced by Nikon, was continued by other Patriarchs and by the Holy Governing Synod. Stauropegic houses were not always the most important monasteries, the holiest, the richest, or the largest. They might have been dear to the ruling Patriarch for personal reasons. In the 19th century, apart from four lavras, seven monasteries were considered stauropegial:
A stauropegial monastery (monasterium stauropegiaceum) under patriarchal jurisdiction (monasterium iuris patriarchalis) is a monastery that is subject directly to the patriarch (can. 434 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches).[6]
Stauropegic parishes in Eastern Orthodoxy are exempt parishes that are not under jurisdiction of a local bishop, but are directly subjected to a higher hierarch, usually a patriarch. Such parishes are created for various reasons, symbolic or practical.
