Germia

Germia was a city in the late Roman province of Galatia Secunda in Central Anatolia.[1]

History

From the time of Justinian I (527565), who went there to take the baths, Germia became known as Myriangeloi (Myriads of Angels) because of its celebrated shrine of Michael the Archangel and the Holy Angels.[2][3]

The ruins of the Byzantine shrine are located in the village of Gümüşkonak, formerly known as Yörme, 8 km south of Günyüzü in Eskişehir Province, Turkey,[3] as are the remains of the baths and of an inn that Justinian built.[2]

Episcopal see

In the 6th century, the geographer Hierocles mentioned Germia as a bishopric. By about 650 it was an autonomous archdiocese, a status it maintained in the 9th century and also under the emperors Leo the Wise (886912), Constantine Porphyrogenitus (913959), and Alexius I Comnenus (10811118). It had become an autocephalous metropolitan see in the time of Michael VIII Palaeologus (12591282), Andronicus II (12821328) and Andronicus III (13281341), but disappeared soon after.[2]

It is now in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees.[1]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 902
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Siméon Vailhé, "Germia" in Catholic Encyclopedia (New York 19090
  3. 3.0 3.1 Cyril Mango, “The Pilgrimage Centre of St. Michael at Germia” Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 36 (1986): pp. 117-32

Coordinates: 39°20′N 31°50′E / 39.333°N 31.833°E