Benda, Albania

Benda is an Ancient city and former diocese in present Albania, now a Latin Catholic titular see.

History

Benda was important enough in the Roman province of Epirus Novus to become a suffragan diocese of its capital Dyrrhachium's Metropolitan Archbishopric.

Titular see

It was nominally restored as a Latin titular bishopric in 1760.

It has had the following incumbents, all of the lowest (episcopal) rank :

• Hieronim Wielogłowski (1760.09.22 – 1767.01)
• Władysław Jan Walknowski (1768.12.19 – 1779.12)
• Józef Wojciech Gadomski (1782.09.23 – 1791.06.23)
• Antonio de Stefano, Conventual Franciscans (O.F.M. Conv.) (1849.08.28 – 1893.11.01)
• Francesco Uccellini (1894.05.18 – 1895.05.18)
• Jean-Marie Dépierre, Paris Foreign Missions Society (M.E.P.) (1895.04.12 – 1898.10.17)
• Paolo Schirò (1904.01.26 – 1941.09.12)
• Maurice-Bernard-Benoit-Joseph Despatures, M.E.P. (1942.09.06 – 1963.08.26)
• James Edward McManus, Redemptorists (C.SS.R.) (1963.11.18 – 1976.07.03)
• Georges Edmond Robert Gilson (1976.07.13 – 1981.08.13), as Auxiliary Bishop of Paris (France) (1976.07.13 – 1981.08.13); later Bishop of Le Mans (France) (1981.08.13 – 1996.08.02), Metropolitan Archbishop of Sens (France) (1996.08.02 – 2002.12.08), also Bishop-Prelate of the Territorial Prelature of Mission de France (France) (1996.08.02 – 2004.12.31), later demoted non-Metropolitan Archbishop of Sens (2002.12.08 – 2004.12.31)
• Johannes Bernardus Niënhaus (1982.01.15 – 2000.12.05)
• Tomasz Peta (2001.02.15 – 2003.05.17) as first Apostolic Administrator of Astana (Kazakhstan) (1999.07.07 – 2003.05.17); later promoted first Metropolitan Archbishop of Astana (Kazakhstan) (2003.05.17 – ...) & President of Episcopal Conference of Kazakhstan (2003.05 – ...)
• Vasyl Ivasyuk (2003.07.28 – 2014.02.13)
• Wilhelm Zimmermann (2014.03.14 – ...), Auxiliary Bishop of Essen (Germany)

Source and External links

• GigaCatholic, with titular incumbent biography links