Eccl. Pl. -i. Also 9 in anglicized form syncel. [med.L. syncellus, sincellus, lit. one who shares a cell with another, a. Byzantine Gr. σύγκελλος, hybrid f. Gr. σύν SYN- + cella CELL sb.] In the Eastern Church, orig. an ecclesiastic who lived continually with a prelate; esp. the domestic chaplain of a metropolitan or patriarch; later, a dignitary who was associated with a prelate and succeeded to his office.
Applied by some to ecclesiastics in the Western Church.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Syncellus, a dignify’d Clergyman in the Greek Church, who was next to the Patriarch; a Bishop’s Suffragan.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., There were also Syncelli in the Western Church, particularly in France.
1844. Kay, Fleury’s Eccl. Hist., III. 13, note. At Constantinople the Syncels possessed a very high rank; in Constantine’s time they sat by the side of the Patriarch, taking precedence even of the Metropolitans.
1890. T. W. Allies, Peter’s Rock, 326. Anastasius, priest and syncellus of Sancta Sophia.
So Syncellite [ad. med.L. syncellita: see -ITE1].
1720. J. Johnson, Collect. Eccl. Laws, etc. Ch. Eng., anno 679. § 7. Your Predecessor Gregory of blessed Memory, and … St. Augustin his Syncellite.
