Catholicate / Maphryonite of the Syriac Church

The historic office of the canonical Catholicate of the East Syrian Orthodox Church within the Antiochean Patriarchate came to be later known as Maphryono (Anglicized as Maphrian; meaning Fructifier) in Syriac after the division in the Church of the East due to Nestorian schism. Historically, the Maphryono ranks second in hierarchy of the Universal Syrian Orthodox Church after the Patriarch of Antioch.

At least seven of the Maphryonos have later been elevated as the Supreme head of the Syrian Church in the Apostolic See of St. Peter as the Patriarch of Antioch and all the East. This historic office of 'Maphryono' came to an end in a council of all the Syrian Orthodox Metropolitans presided over by the then Patriarch of Antioch and all the East in 1861.