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On [[February 28]], 1870, the twenty-year old struggle between Greeks and Bulgarians for the control of the Church in Bulgaria culminated when the Ottoman Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz created an independent Bulgarian ecclesiastical organization, known as the Bulgarian Exarchate, with its head given the title of Exarch, not that of Patriarch. The [[Church of Bulgaria]] had then become independent of the Greek-dominated Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Bulgarian Exarch resided at Constantinople, the Ottoman capital.
The head of the [[Church of Georgia]], which had been autocephalous since 750, was styled, since 1008, as [[Catholicos]]-Patriarchs of Iberia, i.e. the Caucacus. In 1802, after imperial Russia destroyed the independence of the Georgian Church, the Primate of Georgia (who was always a Russian) sat in the [[Holy Synod]] at St. Petersburg with the title of Exarch of Georgia (Fortescue, Orthodox Eastern Church, 304-305). On [[April 7]], 1917 the Georgian Patriarchate was restored with the title of Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia. Its autocephaly was recognized by the Church of Russia, in 1943, and by the Constantinople Patriarchate on [[March 3]], 1990.
Today in the Orthodox Church, an Exarch is usually a deputy of a Patriarch. In many cases he rules, on behalf of the Patriarch, a Church outside the home territory of the Patriarchate. Thus, in the United States of America, there are Exarchs representing, among others, the Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian and Jerusalem Patriarchs. The style of the Exarchs of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem is "Exarch of the Holy Sepulcher".