What is a cathedral

A Cathedral is a large imposing Christian church, technically the central church of a bishopric. Sometimes it's also used as a designation for any large important church. The term is not used in Eastern orthodoxy the church of a bishop being known sometimes as "the great church".

Designation
A cathedral, more correctly "cathedral church" (ecclesia cathedralis), is the church which contains the official "seat" or throne of a bishop, a major symbol of authority. Cathedra, one of the Greek/Latin names for this, gives us the adjective "cathedral". The adjective has gradually assumed the character of a noun. The cathedral church may be modest in its structure; a church may become a cathdral if a new docese is established.

One of the earliest instances of the term ecclesia cathedralis is said to occur in the acts of the council of Tarragona in 516. Another name for a cathedral church is ecclesia mater, indicating that it is the mother church from which other congragations have been established. As the one important church, it was also known as ecclesia major. Again, as the chief house of God, the Domus Dei, and from this name the German and Polish custom of the cathgedral as Dom (a Domherr being a German canon) and the Italian Duomo. In Spanish it is customary to refer to la seo or la seu (the see).

At Strasburg and elsewhere in Germany, and in many imposing churches of England, the cathedral is called Münster (monasterium), because some cathedrals were served by canons living in community.

The other kind of great church in Western europe is the Abbey.

(Cathedrals in Wales)