hagiarchy

From hagio- +‎ -archy.

• IPA^(key): /ˈheɪdʒiˌɑː(ɹ)ki/, /ˈhædʒiˌɑː(ɹ)ki/

hagiarchy (plural hagiarchies)

1. A government run by holy or religious people.
   • 1826, Robert Southey, Letters to Charles Butler, Esq.:

     St. Benedict and the Seraphic St. Francis, personages of the highest order in the hagiarchy, found it necessary to prescribe for themselves a roll among the briars

• “hagiarchy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.