Autocephalous Definition & Meaning

Origin of Autocephalous

From Byzantine Greek autokephalos auto-, auto- kephalos head ghebh-el- in Indo-European roots

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
From Ancient Greek αὐτοκέφαλος (autoképhalos), from αὐτο- (auto-, “auto-”) + κεφαλή (kephalē, “head”).

From Wiktionary

For example, the church of Mount Sinai may be regarded as all that survives of the ancient church of northern Arabia; the autocephalous Slavonic churches of Ipek and Okhrida, which derived their ultimate origin from the missions of Cyril and Methodius, were absorbed in the patriarchate of Constantinople in 1766 and 1767 respectively; and the Church of Georgia has been part of the Russian Church since 1801-1802.
In this way the j ealousies of race and the necessities of nations have produced various national churches which are independent or autocephalous and yet are one in doctrine.
Eight years later the seat of ecclesiastical government was fixed at Belgrade; and when Servia gained its independence its church became autocephalous.
On the union of the two principalities under Alexander Couza (December 1861) the Church was declared autocephalous under a metropolitan at Bucharest; and the fact was recognized by the patriarchs, as it was in the case of Servia, after the treaty of Berlin had guaranteed their independence.
In this way the Russian Church became autocephalous, and its patriarch had immense power.

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