What's the noun for patriarchesses? Here's the word you're looking for.
patriarch
(Christianity) The highest form of bishop, in the ancient world having authority over other bishops in the province but now generally as an honorary title; in Roman Catholicism, considered a bishop second only to the Pope in rank. [from 9th c.]
In Biblical contexts, a male leader of a family, tribe or ethnic group, especially one of the twelve sons of Jacob (considered to have created the twelve tribes of Israel) or (in plural) Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. [from 13th c.]
“The series begins as the family's patriarch Rodrigo becomes Pope, propelling him, his two Machiavellian sons Cesare and Juan, and his scandalously beautiful daughter, Lucrezia, to become the most powerful and influential family of the Italian Renaissance.”
“Patrick Joseph Kennedy (1858–1929) is credited as the family's first patriarch. He made his money in the alcohol industry before going on to serve as a Massachusetts state representative and senator.”
“The elder, Gor Coron, was the tribe's patriarch before Darbus, Brother. He may be old, but if you do not treat him with respect, you will pay dearly for it.”
(politics) A political theory which arose in England in the seventeenth century, which emphasized the absolute power of the king as the paternal head of state, viewing his fatherly power as having been inherited genealogically from Adam.
“Today there are sixteen separate Orthodox churches and patriarchates.”
“The Byzantine Empire soon lost the lands of the eastern patriarchates of Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch and was reduced to that of Constantinople, the empire's capital.”
“Of its several patriarchates four reminiscent the pentarchy, while its autocephalous and autonomous churches reflect or variety of hierarchical organisation.”