Decoriana

Decoriana (Decoriensisor Dicensis) was an ancient Roman–Berber city and former bishopric in Tunisia. It is now a Latin Catholic titular see.[1][2][3][4][5]

Roman Africa

History

Decoriana, in today's Tunisia, was important enough in the Roman province of Byzacena to become one of the many suffragans of its capital Hadrumetum's Metropolitan Archbishop, [6] yet it was to fade.

Residential bishops

There are only two known ancient bishops of this diocese.

• Among the Catholic bishops summoned to Carthage in 484 by the Vandal King, Huneric was the Bishop Leander (or Lenzio), who was exiled to Corsica.
• Paschasios (Pascasio), as bishop of Decorianensis in Byzacena, signed the acts of the African council antimonothelite in 646 and subscribed in 645/646 the letter sent from the bishops of Byzacena to the Byzantine emperor Constans II, asking him to persuade the Patriarch of Constantinople, Paul II, to abandon the monothelite heresy; the letter was read out at the Lateran Council in October 649; in the list of signatures his name appears twenty-first: Conc. Lat., p. 77, line 37 [7]

Titular see

The diocese was nominally restored in 1933, as a Latin Catholic titular bishopric Decoriana.

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

• Felipe Benito Pacheco Condurú, as emeritate (17 Jan 1959 Appointed - 1 Oct 1972 Died); previously Bishop of Ilhéus (Brazil) (1941.04.19 – 1946.02.07), Bishop of Parnaíba (Brazil) (1946.02.07 – 1959.01.17)
• Julius Gábriš (19 Feb 1973 Appointed - 13 Nov 1987 Died), as Apostolic Administrator of the then Apostolic Administration of Trnava (Slovakia) (1973.02.19 – 1977.12.30); later Apostolic Administrator of the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Trnava (Slovakia) (1977.12.30 – 1987.11.13)
• Max Mariu, S.M. (30 Jan 1988 Appointed - 12 Dec 2005 Died), as Auxiliary Bishop of Hamilton (New Zealand) (1988.01.30 – 2005.12.12)
• Jan Niemiec (20 October 2006 – ...), Auxiliary Bishop of Kamyanets-Podilskyi (Ukraine)[8]

See also

• Catholic Church in Tunisia

References

1. Louis de Mas Latrie, Migne, Dictionnaire de statistique religieuse et de l'art de vérifier les dates... (J.-P. Migne, 1831 - France)p 653.
2. Stefano Antonio Morcelli, Bettoni, Steph. Antonii Morcelli,... Africa Christiana: in tres partes tributa (ex officina Bettoniana, 1816) p 150.
3. Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 465.
4. Copertina anteriore Stefano Antonio Morcelli , Africa Christiana: in tres partes pays, Volume 1 (Betton, 1816)p150.
5. J. Ferron, v. Decorianensis in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. IX,(1937), col. 155
6. Decoriana. at GCatholic.org.
7. "Pascasius misericordia dei episcopus sanctae ecclesiae Decorianensis"
8. Decori also known as Decoriana at Catholic-hierarchy.org.

External links

• GCatholic