abbot

Male superior of a monastery or abbey (usually of the Benedictine family or certain congregations of canons regular).

The Rule of St Benedict describes the abbot as the father of his community and gives him wide powers of government. An abbot is usually elected by the monks subject to episcopal or papal approval, depending on the monastery's status (independent or under episcopal jurisdiction). The insignia of office are those of the bishop's mitre, crozier, ring, and so on, but abbots are not normally in episcopal orders.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church the corresponding title to abbot is archimandrite (chief monk) or hegumenos (leader). In pre-Reformation England 26 abbots (along with two priors) sat in the House of Lords, and in Germany there were prince abbots who had wide territorial power. In the Middle Ages there were field abbots (abbates milites) and abbot-counts (abba-comites or abbi-comites), secular people who gave military service in return for the reserves of certain abbeys bestowed upon them by the prince.