assisting or auxiliary to, as applied to any bishop in relation to the archbishop or metropolitan who is his superior, or as applied to an assistant or subsidiary bishop who performs episcopal functions in a diocese but has no ordinary jurisdiction, as, in the Church of England, a bishop consecrated to assist the ordinary bishop of a see in part of his diocese.
2.
(of a see or diocese) subordinate to an archiepiscopal or metropolitan see.
(of any bishop of a diocese) subordinate to and assisting his superior archbishop or metropolitan
(of any assistant bishop) having the duty of assisting the bishop of the diocese to which he is appointed but having no ordinary jurisdiction in that diocese
noun
2.
a suffragan bishop
Derived Forms
suffraganship, noun
Word Origin
C14: from Medieval Latin suffragāneus, from suffrāgium assistance, from Latin: suffrage
Word Origin and History for suffragan
n.
late 14c., "bishop who assists another bishop," from Anglo-French and Old French suffragan (13c.), from Medieval Latin suffraganeus "assisting, supporting," from Latin suffragium "support" (see suffrage).