Euchaita

Euchaita (Greek: Εὐχάιτα) was a Byzantine town and (arch)bishopric in northern Asia Minor (modern Asian Turkey).

It was identified with modern Avhat (Avk(h)at). Today the Turkish village Beyözü, in the Anatolian province of Çorum (in the subprovince of Mecitözü), partly lies on the ruins.

History

Euchaita, in the Roman province of Helenopontus (Civil diocese of Pontus, was known in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages as the centre of the cult of Saint Theodore of Amasea (martyred ?306), and became a major pilgrimage site after his remains were moved there from neighbouring Amasea. Its episcopal see was originally a suffragan (no incumbents known) of the Metropolitan of the provincial capital Amasea, in the sway of patriarchate of Constantinople. In the 5th century, the town was a favourite site of exile for disgraced senior churchmen. In 515, the unfortified town was sacked by a Hunnic raid, after which it was rebuilt, fortified and raised to the status of a city by Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I.[1]

The city was later burned down by the Sassanid Persians in 615, and attacked by the Arabs under second Ummayad Caliph Mu'awiya I in 640. A second Arab attack captured the city in 663; the raiders plundered the city, destroyed the church of St. Theodore, and wintered there, while the population fled to fortified refuges in the surrounding countryside.[1] It became an autocephalous archbishopric in the early 7th century[1], as attested by the Notitia Episcopatuum edition of pseudo-Epiphanius, from the reign of [[Byzantine emperor Heraclius I (circa 640),.

The city was rebuilt and soon recovered. The Arabs scored a victory in its vicinity in 810, taking captive the local strategos of the Armeniac Theme and his entire treasury.

It became a full metropolitan see under Leo VI the Wise (r. 886–912) [1] and Patriarch Photius of Constantinople, ranking 51st among the Metropolitanates of the Patriarchate, with four suffragan sees : Gazala, Koutziagra, Sibiktos and Bariané, but apparently lost them all no later then the tenth century.

In 972, Emperor John I Tzimiskes renamed the neighbouring Euchaneia, whose exact relation or identity with Euchaita is unclear, into Theodoropolis.[1] The town is recorded as having a vibrant fair during the festival of St. Theodore in the middle of the 11th century, but its history thereafter is unknown.[1]

Episcopal Ordinaries

Titular see

It is vacant since decades, having had the following incumbents, of the fitting archiepiscopal (intermediate) rank :

BIOS TO ELABORATE

Excavations

In the early 21st Century, the town became the focus of an interdisciplinary archaeological project (the Avkat Archaeological Project), under the direction of John Haldon of Princeton University. Additional institutions contributing resources and personnel include Trent University, the College of Charleston, the University of Birmingham, Ankara University and the Middle East Technical University (Ankara).

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Foss 1991, p. 737.
  2. ↑ known from a seal: Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, vol. IV, 2001, p. 45

Coordinates: 40°34′12″N 35°16′05″E / 40.570°N 35.268°E / 40.570; 35.268

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