A stauropegic monastery, also rendered stavropegic, stauropegial, or stavropegial (from stauros "cross" and πήγνυμι pegnumi "to affirm"), is an Eastern Orthodox or Eastern Catholic Christian monastery subordinated directly to a Patriarch or Synod, rather than to a local Bishop. The name comes from the Byzantine tradition of summoning the Patriarch to place a cross at the foundation of such monasteries.