The Most Reverend is an honorific style given to certain high-ranking religious figures, primarily within the historic denominations of Christianity, but occasionally also in more modern traditions. It is a variant of the more common style " The Reverend".

Catholic

In the Catholic Church, two different systems may be found. In England, Scotland, Wales, and a number of Commonwealth nations, the system is identical to that described for Anglicanism. Archbishops bear the style "The Most Reverend", with other bishops styled "The Right Reverend". In other countries, all bishops are styled "The Most Reverend", as well as monsignors of the rank of

protonotary apostolic In the Roman Catholic Church, protonotary apostolic (PA; Latin: ''protonotarius apostolicus'') is the title for a member of the highest non-episcopal college of prelates in the Roman Curia or, outside Rome, an honorary prelate on whom the pop ...

''de numero''. By custom, this title is used for the ministers general of the various branches of the Order of Friars Minor as well as of the

Third Order Regular of St. Francis The Third Order of Saint Francis is a third order in the Franciscan tradition of Christianity, founded by the medieval Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi. The preaching of Francis and his disciples caused many married men and women to w ...

Eastern Orthodox

In the Eastern Orthodox tradition,

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

s under the

Ecumenical Patriarchate The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ( el, Οἰκουμενικὸν Πατριαρχεῖον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, translit=Oikoumenikón Patriarkhíon Konstantinoupóleos, ; la, Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constanti ...

(those who are not the

primates Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

of autocephalous churches) and metropolitans are styled "The Most Reverend". Other bishops are styled "The Right Reverend".

Anglican

In the Anglican Communion, the style is applied to

s (including those who, for historical reasons, bear an alternative title, such as presiding bishop), rather than the style " The Right Reverend" which is used by other bishops. "The Most Reverend" is used by both

(the senior archbishop of each independent national or regional church) and metropolitan archbishops (as metropolitan of an ecclesiastical province within a national or regional church). Retired archbishops usually revert to being styled "The Right Reverend", although they may be appointed "archbishop emeritus" by their province on retirement, in which case they retain the title "archbishop" and the style "The Most Reverend", as a courtesy. Archbishop

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop ...

was a prominent example. Uniquely within Anglicanism, for historical reasons, the Bishop of Meath and Kildare is also given this style, despite not being an archbishop.

Other denominations

In some modern Christian denominations, "The Most Reverend" is used to refer to archbishops and presiding bishops, or sometimes simply to senior pastors of churches.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Most Reverend, The Ecclesiastical styles