Superior (hierarchy)

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Polish. (August 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Polish article. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 1,278 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Polish Wikipedia article at [[:pl:Przełożony]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|pl|Przełożony}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

This article does not cite any sources. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (December 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

In a hierarchy or tree structure of any kind, a superior is an individual or position at a higher level in the hierarchy than another (a "subordinate" or "inferior"), and thus closer to the apex. In business, superiors are people who are supervisors and in the military, superiors are people who are higher in the chain of command (superior officer). Superiors are given sometimes supreme authority over others under their command. When an order is given, one must follow that order and obey it or punishment may be issued.

Catholic Church[]

A religious superior is the person to whom a cleric is immediately responsible under canon law. For monks, it would be the abbot (or the abbess for nuns); for friars, it would be the prior, or, for Franciscans, the guardian (custos), for Minims, the corrector; for diocesan priests, it would be the local bishop. In religious orders with a hierarchy above the local community, there will also be superiors general and possibly provincial superiors above the local abbot, prior, or mother superior. The priest in charge a mission sui iuris is called an ecclesiastical superior.

See also[]

Look up Superior in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Seniority