suffragan
/ˈsʌfrəɡ(ə)n
/(also suffragan bishop or bishop suffragan)
noun
1A bishop appointed to help a diocesan bishop: Ealdred became suffragan to Lyfing of Worcester...
- All 44 diocesan bishops and 10 suffragans were asked to attend the meeting to discuss October's Windsor Report, a document produced to examine the crisis.
- The archbishops, 42 diocesan bishops and 69 suffragan or full-time assistant bishops cost the church a grand total of £14.3m during 2003, the figures show.
- She was the first woman to rise to the position of suffragan, or assistant, bishop at the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts - a position previously reserved for men.
1.1A bishop in relation to his archbishop or metropolitan.In 1808, Pope Pius VII made Baltimore an archdiocese, with suffragan bishops in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Bardstown, Kentucky.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French and Old French, representing medieval Latin suffraganeus 'assistant (bishop)', from Latin suffragium (see suffrage).