Where are the records of Apostolic succession?

[TIK]

Hi,

The Catholic church claims to have apostolic succession (that is, that it is possible to trace succession through the bishops for 2000 years and arrive at the apostles) I’m just wondering where/if this is recorded? Is it something you just have to believe or are there actual documents which can be consulted? It would be brilliant to collate all the records into a single diagram/family tree. (If it were possible to also include the Orthodox and Anglicans and Lutherans on the tree that would be extra credit! )
I would love to be able to look at a Chinese bishop and see how he can be traced back to the apostles, while at the same time being able to look at an American or French bishop and see how they are traced back to the apostles.

Ideally I should be able to look at any bishop/cardinal/pope and be able to trace their succession back to the apostles… right?

Thanks in advance

 

[Elizium23]

A useful site is catholic-hierarchy.org, which documents the lineage of a vast number of current and past bishops of the Church. Here is a link to a deceased archbishop of Peking (curiously the current archbishop as of 2007 is not in this database…) This site is operated and maintained by one man, David Cheney.

You will find an interesting thing as you explore the lineages of various bishops. They can’t be definitively traced back to the Apostles using extant documents, and in fact, more than 95% of all living Catholic bishops trace back to one man, Cardinal Scipione Rebiba. The reason for this is that he was the consecrator of Pope Benedict XIII, who in turn personally consecrated over 139 bishops for major European sees, and the other lines had a tendency to die out. The records of who consecrated Rebiba have been lost, thanks probably to Napoleon and his mistreatment of the Vatican Secret Archives.

Even though definitive documentary proof has been lost, there is little doubt of the validity of apostolic succession. From a very early time, it has been required that at least three bishops be the consecrators of a newly ordained bishop, and this has the tendency to both ensure succession as well as purify the lineage in the rare case of an invalid ordination.

 

[captainrick]

Hi,

The Catholic church claims to have apostolic succession (that is, that it is possible to trace succession through the bishops for 2000 years and arrive at the apostles) I’m just wondering where/if this is recorded? Is it something you just have to believe or are there actual documents which can be consulted? It would be brilliant to collate all the records into a single diagram/family tree. (If it were possible to also include the Orthodox and Anglicans and Lutherans on the tree that would be extra credit! )
I would love to be able to look at a Chinese bishop and see how he can be traced back to the apostles, while at the same time being able to look at an American or French bishop and see how they are traced back to the apostles.

Ideally I should be able to look at any bishop/cardinal/pope and be able to trace their succession back to the apostles… right?

Thanks in advance

How would this family tree work? I thought Bishops were priests who were recommended, and then appointed by the Pope. I’m a “new” Catholic, so not too sure!

 

[Elizium23]

How would this family tree work? I thought Bishops were priests who were recommended, and then appointed by the Pope. I’m a “new” Catholic, so not too sure!

Apostolic lineage is determined by who consecrated whom. Only a bishop may ordain new bishops, and the Apostles are the originals, the proto-bishops. Every ordained Catholic man today has a heritage of ordination that traces directly back to one of twelve Apostles.

 

[captainrick]

Apostolic lineage is determined by who consecrated whom. Only a bishop may ordain new bishops, and the Apostles are the originals, the proto-bishops. Every ordained Catholic man today has a heritage of ordination that traces directly back to one of twelve Apostles.

Thanks for the info!