www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Age requirements for bishops

In the Catholic Churches a man must be 35 to be ordained a bishop (CIC can. 378 §1; CCEO can. 180).

What is the age requirement in the Orthodox Churches?

I understand that 33(the age of Our Saviour at the time of His death on the cross)to be the minimum age.However,there are cases of 30 year olds being made bishops,the bishop under whose omophor I serve,Longin of the Serbian Church,was made bishop at age 30(HE WAS ORDAINED PRIEST sometime before his 20th birthday,having already taken monastic vows).Bishop Longin was ordained priest sometime in '75,I was ordained a priest two years later before my 25th birthday.I know I'm getting old when my bishop is younger than me!

An eighteen year old became Pope, a sixteen year old became Patriarch of Constantinople. Of course, I am not sure we want to hold these up as examples.

If I'm not mistaken, there was once a 12-year-old who became Pope. He eventually resigned.

Fr. Serge

The current (and recently elevated) Archbishop of Michalovce and Kosice, Juraj, was consecrated at the age of 27. He was born on October 19, 1979. http://www.mpe.orthodox.sk/?page_id=118

Dave

Ah, the good old days. I'm sure if he had not resigned, he would have been strangled.

Many Russian bishops were consecrated at the age of 30 or thereabouts in the Soviet era. The current Patriarch of Moscow was bishop at 30 and archbishop at 31, and his mentor Nikodim of Leningrad was notorious for becoming bishop at 31 and Metropolitan at 33.

I've read that Archbishop Chrysostom (Kiousis), head of the largest Greek Orthodox Old Calendarist jurisdiction, recently ordained some bishops who were only between the ages of 29 and 34.

Incidentally, the minimum age for bishops in the Roman Catholic Church was 30 until 1983. Popes Pius XII and Paul VI appointed some very young bishops and archbishops, especially in the Third World -- Cardinal Arinze was bishop at 32 and archbishop at 34. Until the 19th century there were clerics who were elevated to the episcopate in their 20's

(There were some super-young bishops behind the Iron Curtain -- Cardinal Korec was made bishop at the age of 27 - but this was to a great extent forced by the circumstances.)

At present, though, it is already considered remarkable for someone in his early 40's to be made bishop. Yesterday there was much astonishment in my country when a 48-year-old bishop (consecrated at the age of 40) was elevated to a major Archdiocese in the Philippines.

Thank you, Fr. Al. That's very interesting. I like the symbolism of the age of 33.

Age requirements traditionally have been guidelines, not something written in stone. It is interesting that, as far as I can tell, there was never any ancient canon about the minimum age for a bishop, but there was for a presbyter. Most of the ancient canons state that a presbyter should be at least thirty years old, which by the standards of that day would have made him a solidly mature man (remember, forty was middle aged, and sixty was decrepit). So the Church was looking for mature men, who by that time probably had seen something of the world, had a wife and a family, and a solid reputation in the community.

How interesting, then, that the age at which we are willing to ordain presbyters has decreased to twenty five, which by the standards of our time is barely out of adolescence (a concept with which the ancients were unfamiliar), and with hardly any experience of the world at all.

If we were to live by the spirit of the patristic canons, then we should probably not ordain a man to the presbyterate until his late thirties or early forties, at least, which ought to obviate the need for any minimal pertaining to bishops.

Of course, age requirements ought to be regarded as advisory, with ready exceptions made for the exceptional man or exceptional circumstances.

I don't know that there is a specfic canon mentioning the age 33,I think that's an "unwritten" rule.ROCOR Metropolitan Anastasy was made bishop in 1906 at age 33 and reposed in 1965 at age 92.His 59 year episcopacy has not been surpassed by any hierarch,Catholic.Orthodox, or other(at least I don't think any longer episcopacy has been documented).I know of at least two hierarchs who passed the 50 year anniversary as bishops,Patriarch Alexei I of Russia,and Metropolitan Vitaly of ROCOR.

Add Archbishop John Mark Gannon, formerly of Erie, Pennsylvania, from 1918 to 1968: 50.6 years.

The founder of my Alma Mater and just about everything else Roman Catholic within the Diocese of Erie

There are some Catholic hierarchs who were bishops for more than 60 years.

Pope Leo XIII [en.wikipedia.org] is one example. He was ordained bishop aged 33 and died aged 93, having been 60 years a bishop and 25 years Bishop of Rome.

Another example is Archbishop Francis Redwood [catholic-hierarchy.org] of Wellington, New Zealand. He was ordained Bishop of Wellington in 1874 at the age of 35, promoted Metropolitan Archbishop of Wellington in 1887, and died in office in 1935 aged 96, having been 60 years a bishop, all of them in the same See!

By the way, it is interesting that the three youngest Catholic bishops (and the only ones under 40) today are all Eastern Catholics: Bishop Mihai Cătălin Frăţilă (38) of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church, Bishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk (39) of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Argentina, and Bishop Vasile Bizău (39) of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church.