A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations.
In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led by the suffragan is called a suffragan diocese.
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan (alternative obsolete form: metropolite), is held by the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis.
Originally, the term referred to the bishop of the chief city of a historical Roman province, whose authority in relation to the other bishops of the province was recognized by the First Council of Nicaea (AD 325). The bishop of the provincial capital, the metropolitan, enjoyed certain rights over other bishops in the province, later called "suffragan bishops".
A diocesan bishop, within various Christian traditions, is a bishop or archbishop in pastoral charge of a diocese or archdiocese. In relation to other bishops, a diocesan bishop may be a suffragan, a metropolitan (if an archbishop) or a primate. They may also hold various other positions such as being a cardinal or patriarch.
Titular bishops in the Roman Catholic Church may be assistant bishops with special faculties, coadjutor bishops (these bishops are now named as coadjutors of the dioceses they will lead, and not as titular bishops), auxiliary bishops, nuncios or similar papal diplomats (usually archbishops), officials of the Roman Curia (usually for bishops as heads or deputies of departments who are not previous ordinaries), etc. They may also hold other positions such as cardinal. The see of titular bishop is only nominal, not pastoral- meaning he does not exercise final authority as the head bishop (the ordinary), or have the right to automatically succeed the aforementioned individual (the coadjutor), over an existing diocese or archdiocese or their Eastern rite equivalents, (arch-)eparchies. Titular bishops may be active or retired. Occasionally, as a priest, they may have been given a titular bishopric or archbishopric as an honor by the Pope, similar to when he names some cardinals.
The active bishops of the Church of England are usually either diocesan bishops or suffragan bishops. Several also hold portfolios of national responsibility, either as spokesperson bishops for the Church of England or as Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords.
A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, and the Romanian Orthodox Church.
In the Catholic Church, although such a diocese is governed by its own bishop or ordinary, who is the suffragan bishop, the metropolitan archbishop has in its regard certain rights and duties of oversight. He has no power of governance within a suffragan diocese, but has some limited rights and duties to intervene in cases of neglect by the authorities of the diocese itself.
The Diocese of El Paso (Latin: Dioecesis Elpasensis, Spanish: Diócesis de El Paso) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in the El Paso Valley in Texas in the United States. It is a suffragan see of the metropolitan Archdiocese of San Antonio.
The mother church of the Diocese of El Paso is St. Patrick's Cathedral in El Paso. As of 2023, the bishop is Mark J. Seitz.
The Collegiate Church of St Mary is a Church of England parish church in Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It is in the centre of the town just east of the market place. It is Grade I listed, and a member of the Major Churches Network.
The church has the status of collegiate church as it had a college of secular canons. In governance and religious observance it was similar to a cathedral (although not the seat of a bishop and without diocesan responsibilities). There is a Bishop of Warwick, but this is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Coventry.
The Diocese of Pavia (Latin: Dioecesis Papiensis) is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in Italy. It has been a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Milan only since 1817. Previous to the reorganization of the hierarchy in northern Italy by Pope Pius VII after the expulsion of the French and the Congress of Vienna, the diocese of Pavia had depended directly upon the Holy See, despite repeated failed attempts on the part of the Archbishops of Milan to claim control. The diocese has produced one Pope and Patriarch of Venice, and three cardinals.
The seat of the bishop is the Cattedrale di Maria Assunta e S. Stefano Protomartire in Pavia. The current bishop of Pavia is Corrado Sanguineti, appointed by Pope Francis on 1 December 2015.