Catholicity

The quality of universality — each local Church is the full, complete, whole Church, not a fraction of it.

Catholic (from kath'holou, according to the whole) is one of the four marks of the Church: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. In Orthodox theology, catholicity does not primarily mean geographical universality but ontological completeness: every local church gathered around its bishop is the full, complete, whole Church. This is why St. Ignatius of Antioch could write in the 2nd century: 'Where the bishop is, there let the multitude of believers be; even as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.'