The '''Church of Antioch''' is one of the five [[patriarchate]]s (i.e., the [[Pentarchy]]) that constituted the [[One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church|one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church]] before the [[Great Schism|schism]] between Rome and Antioch in 1098, and between Rome and the other patriarchates at around the same general period. Today it is one of the [[autocephaly|autocephalous]] Orthodox churches. In English translations of official documents, the Church of Antioch refers to itself as the '''Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East''', though because of a literal translation of the Arabic name imposed on it by Ottoman law, and retained to this day by the various political successors to the Ottomans, such as the would -be '''"Roman Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East'''."

The early history of the Church of Antioch is detailed in the [[Acts of the Apostles]], where in Acts 11:23 26 the [[Apostle Luke]] records that it was in that city that the disciples of Christ were first called [[Christian]]s. Due to the importance of Antioch as a major center in the ancient [[Roman Empire]], many of the missionary efforts of the [[apostles]] were launched from that city. In the early centuries of the Church's history, it was natural that the Church sojourning in Antioch would come to be traditionally regarded as one of the centers of world Christianity. The territory that came to be associated with the [[bishop]] of Antioch was that of the Roman Diocese of the East (a diocese was originally an Imperial imperial governmental division before it became an ecclesiastical one).