Archdiocese of Mopsuestia

The Diocese of the East around 400, showing the province of Cilicia II, corresponding to the ecclesiastical diocese with its seat at Mopsuestia

The Archdiocese of Mopsuestia (Latin: Archidioecesis Mopsuestena or Mamistrensis) is a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church. The diocese originally corresponded to the province of Cilicia Secunda, part of the Diocese of the East, with its seat (cathedral) at Mopsuestia, later known as Mamistra in the Middle Ages and as Misis in the Ottoman Empire. Today the nominal seat of the diocese is Yakapınar, a village in Turkey. It is a part of the Patriarchate of Antioch.

Mopsuestia was originally a suffragan of the archdiocese of Anazarbus until the sixth century, when it was raised to metropolitan (archiepiscopal) rank, but without suffragans of its own, as recorded in the tenth-century Notitiae Episcopatuum. Its most famous bishop during the early period was Theodore II (392–428), a founder of the theological school of Antioch whose works were condemned at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553.

With the spread of Islam in the seventh century the archdiocese fell into obscurity. It was re-founded in December 1099 during the First Crusade. A series of Latin rite bishops were appointed until the fourteenth century, when the rise of the Ottoman Empire made it impossible for the bishops to maintain their residence in the city. Despite the continuance of the Genoese colony there, the archbishopric disappeared. The most famous incumbent during the Latin period was Ralph of Domfront, who in 1135 was transferred to the Patriarchate of Antioch. A series of late bishops—James, Peter and Thomas—were Dominicans. The last Latin archbishop, Volcardus, was an Augustinian. He never got to his see on account of the Mameluke threat.

Mamistra was revived as a titularity for Manoel da Silva Gomes on 11 April 1911. These titulars were auxiliary bishops in other dioceses. From 1923 until 1926 the titular archbishop was Gustave-Charles-Marie Mutel, emeritus apostolic vicar for Korea. The titular see has been vacant since the death of the last incumbent, Joseph Gotthardt, apostolic vicar for South West Africa, on 3 August 1963.

List of bishops

Greek (Antiochene) rite
Latin (Roman) rite

Sources

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