Gratianopolis (Mauretania Caesariensis)

Gratianopolis was an ancient city and Roman Catholic diocese in Mauretania Caesariensis in the Maghreb. It now is a Latin Catholic titular see.

Gratianopolis was one of several towns named after the Roman emperor Gratian (367 to 383). It is only known from mentions in church council minutes. Its history, location and present condition are unknown.

Ecclesiastical history

Gratianopolis was important enough in the Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis to become one of the suffragans of its Metropolitan Archbishop in the papal sway.

Its only historical recorded bishops attended 5th-century church councils:

  • Publicius (Catholic) and Deuterius (Donatist heretic), both at the Conference of Carthage (411)
  • Thalassius, present at the Synod of Carthage (484) called by king Huneric of the Vandal Kingdom and afterwards banished like most Catholic participants.

The see was to fade like most (plausibly at the 7th century advent of Islam), and apparently does not figure in a list of the bishoprics of the province preserved in a document of the sixth and seventh centuries, unless it be disguised under another native name (see Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 1892, II, 26, 31).

Titular see

No later than 1652, the diocese has been nominally restored as a Latin titular bishopric of Gratianopolis (Latin) / Grazianopoli (Curiate Italian) / Gratianopolitan(us) (Latin adjective).

It has had the following incumbents, so far of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank :[1]

  • Theodorus Skuminowicz (1652.08.12 – death 1668.09.24) as Auxiliary Bishop of Diocese of Vilnius (Lithuania) (1652.08.12 – 1668.09.24)
  • Mikolaj Słupski (1669.06.03 – death 1691?) as Auxiliary Bishop of the above Vilnius (Lithuania) (1669.06.03 – 1691?)
  • Jan Dłużewski (1696.06.18 – death 1720) as Auxiliary Bishop of Diocese of Chełm (Poland) (1696.06.18 – 1720)
  • Michael Piechowski (1721.02.12 – death 1724) as Auxiliary Bishop of Diocese of Przemyśl (Poland) (1721.02.12 – 1724)
  • Dominicus Invitti (Italian) (1724.11.29 – 1725.09.05), no actual prelature; later promoted Titular Archbishop of Sardes (1725.09.05 – ?)
  • Franciscus Josephus Mikolitsch (1789.12.14 – death 1793.12.04) as Auxiliary Bishop of Diocese of Ljubljana (Slovenia) (1789.12.14 – 1793.12.04)
  • Tomasz Chmielewski (1837.10.02 – death 1844.07.30) as Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Warszawa (Poland) (1837.10.02 – 1844.07.30)
  • Ignazio Persico (德斯馬曾), Capuchin Franciscans (O.F.M. Cap.) (1854.03.08 – 1870.03.11), as Coadjutor Apostolic Vicar of Bombay (India) (1854.03.08 – 1856.12.19), Apostolic Vicar of Lhassa 拉薩 (Tibet, China) (1856.12.19 – 1860); later Bishop of Savannah (USA) (1870.03.20 – 1874.06.20), Titular Bishop of Bolina (1874.06.23 – 1879.03.26) & Coadjutor Bishop of Aquino, Sora e Pontecorvo (Italy) (1874.06.20 – 1879.03.26), succeeding as Bishop of Aquino, Sora e Pontecorvo (1879.03.26 – 1887.03.14), then Titular Archbishop of Tamiathis (1887.03.14 – 1893.01.16), Secretary of Sacred Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith (1891.06.13 – 1893.05.30), created Cardinal-Priest of S. Pietro in Vincoli (1893.01.19 – 1895.12.07), Prefect of the Roman Sacred Congregation of Indulgences and Sacred Relics (1893.05.30 – 1895.12.07)
  • Edouard Charles Fabre (1873.04.01 – 1876.05.11) as Coadjutor Bishop of Montréal (Canada) (1873.04.01 – 1876.05.11), succeeding as suffragan Bishop of Montréal (1876.05.11 – 1886.06.08), promoted first Metropolitan Archbishop of Montréal (Canada) (1886.06.08 – 1896.12.30)
  • Pascal Bili, Friars Minor (O.F.M.) (1876.11.20 – death 1878.05.12) as Apostolic Vicar of Northwestern Hupeh 湖北西北 (China) (1876.11.20 – 1878.05.12)
  • Ottaviano Rosario Sabetti, Redemptorists (C.SS.R.) (1880.10.22 – death 1881.03.28) as Auxiliary Bishop of Diocese of Calvi (Italy) (1880.10.22 – 1881.03.28)
  • Francesco Lönhart (1881.04.05 – 1882.03.30) first as Coadjutor Bishop of Skradin (Croatia) (1878 – 1881.04.05), then as Coadjutor Bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Transilvania (Romania) (1881.04.05 – succession 1882.03.30); later Bishop of Transilvania (1882.03.30 – death 1897.06.08)
  • Marie-Laurent-François-Xavier Cordier, Paris Foreign Missions Society (M.E.P.) (French) (1882.06.18 – death 1895.08.14) as Apostolic Vicar of Cambodia (now Phnom Penh, Cambodia) (1882.06.18 – 1895.08.14)
  • Ferdinand Jan Nepomucenus Kalous, C.SS.R. (1891.10.01 – death 1907.09.19) as Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Praha (Bohemia, Czechia) (1891.10.01 – 1907.09.19)
  • Isaias Papadopulos (Greek) (1911.06.28 – death 1932.01.18) first as Assessor of the Roman Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches (1917–1928), then (as emeritate?) Honorary Assessor of Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches (1928 – 1932.01.18)
  • Dionisio Leonida Varouhas (Greece) (1932.06.11 – death 1957.01.28) as Apostolic Exarch of Istanbul of the Greeks (Turkey) (1932.06.11 – 1957.01.28)
  • Hyakinthos Gad (Greek) (1958.02.17 – death 1975.01.30) as Apostolic Exarch of Greece of the Greeks (Greece) (1958.02.17 – 1975.01.30)
  • Anárghyros Printesis (1975.06.28 – death 2012.03.18) as Apostolic Exarch of Greece of the Greeks (Greece) (1975.06.28 – retired 2008.04.23) and on emeritate
  • Dimitrios Salachas (2012.05.14 – ...), Apostolic Exarch of Greece of the Greeks (Greece) (2008.04.23 – retired 2016.02.02) and Member of Commission for the Study of the Reform of the Matrimonial Processes in Canon Law (2014.08.27 – 2015) and still on emeritate.
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See also

References
  1. "Titular See of Gratianopolis, Algeria". GCatholic. Retrieved 2018-01-29.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "article name needed". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Bibliography
  • Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 466
  • Stefano Antonio Morcelli, Africa christiana, Volume I, Brescia 1816, pp. 175–176
  • Jan Kurczewski, Kościół zamkowy, czyli Katedra Wileńska w jej dziejowym, liturgicznym, architektonicznym i ekonomicznym rozwoju, Vilnius 1908, p. 325

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