Mosynopolis ( el, Μοσυνόπολις), of which only ruins now remain in Greek

Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to ...

, was a city in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

Rhodope Rhodope may refer to: * Rhodope (mythology), a figure of Greek mythology * Rhodope Mountains, in Bulgaria and Greece * Rhodope (regional unit) Rhodope ( el, Ροδόπη, ''Rodópi'' ) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the reg ...

, which was known until the 9th century as Maximianopolis (Μαξιμιανούπολις) or, to distinguish it from other cities of the same name, as Maximianopolis in Rhodope.Aikaterini Balla, "Mosynopolis-Maximianoupolis"
/ref>

History

The city of Maximianopolis appears in written sources from the 4th century on. Its fortifications were renewed by

Byzantine emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, to Fall of Constantinople, its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. On ...

Justinian I Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renova ...

, and it was later a base for operations by Emperor

Basil II Basil II Porphyrogenitus ( gr, Βασίλειος Πορφυρογέννητος ;) and, most often, the Purple-born ( gr, ὁ πορφυρογέννητος, translit=ho porphyrogennetos).. 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar S ...

in his

wars War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular ...

against the

Bulgarians Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe. Etymology Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely unders ...

. In the 11th century, the city was the center of a district ('' bandon'') in the

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...

Boleron Boleron ( el, Βολερόν) was the name of a region and a Byzantine province in southwestern Thrace during the Middle Ages. The region is first mentioned in the mid-9th century ''Life of Saint Gregory of Dekapolis'', and designated the area e ...

, and

Anna Komnene Anna Komnene ( gr, Ἄννα Κομνηνή, Ánna Komnēnḗ; 1 December 1083 – 1153), commonly Latinized as Anna Comnena, was a Byzantine princess and author of the ''Alexiad'', an account of the reign of her father, the Byzantine emperor, ...

reports in her '' Alexiad'' that there were many Manichaeans living in Mosynopolis in the late 11th/early 12th centuries. The town was captured in 1185 by the

Normans The Normans ( Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. ...

, while the monk Ephrem says that the city was captured in 1190 by Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor. The

Battle of Messinopolis The Battle of Messinopolis ( bg, Битка при Месинопол) took place on 4 September 1207, at Mosynopolis near the town of Komotini in contemporary Greece, and was fought between the Bulgarians and the Latin Empire. It resulted in a ...

, in which the Bulgarians defeated

Boniface I, Marquess of Montferrat Boniface I, usually known as Boniface of Montferrat ( it, Bonifacio del Monferrato, link=no; el, Βονιφάτιος Μομφερρατικός, ''Vonifatios Momferratikos'') (c. 1150 – 4 September 1207), was the ninth Marquis of Montferrat ( ...

, took place nearby in 1207, and was speedily followed by the destruction of Mosynopolis by Tsar Kaloyan of Bulgaria. The fate of the town thereafter is somewhat obscure: it re-appears in 1317 as part of the theme of "Boleron and Mosynopolis", and its bishopric was still active, but the historian Catherine Asdracha, in her 1972 survey of the

area in the late Middle Ages, suggests that it never recovered from Kaloyan's sack and remained in ruins, proposing that it is to be identified with the town of Mesene, which the emperor and historian

John VI Kantakouzenos John VI Kantakouzenos or Cantacuzene ( el, , ''Iōánnēs Ángelos Palaiológos Kantakouzēnós''; la, Johannes Cantacuzenus; – 15 June 1383) was a Byzantine Greek nobleman, statesman, and general. He served as grand domestic under ...

reported as "destroyed many years ago". The town at some point had other names including Porsula or Porsulae, Corsulae, Impara and Pyrsoalis,

Ecclesiastical history

Bishops of Maximianopolis in Rhodope were present at the 5th and 6th-century

ecumenical council An ecumenical council, also called general council, is a meeting of bishops and other church authorities to consider and rule on questions of Christian doctrine, administration, discipline, and other matters in which those entitled to vote ar ...

s of Ephesus (431),

Chalcedon Chalcedon ( or ; , sometimes transliterated as ''Chalkedon'') was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor. It was located almost directly opposite Byzantium, south of Scutari (modern Üsküdar) and it is now a district of the cit ...

(451), and Constantinople II (553) and in another council of 459. From the 7th to the 9th centuries, the see is referred to as archiepiscopal, giving it

autocephalous Autocephaly (; from el, αὐτοκεφαλία, meaning "property of being self-headed") is the status of a hierarchical Christian church whose head bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop. The term is primarily used in Eastern O ...

status. In all these instances, the see appears under the name Maximianopolis, but in 879 it is under the name Mosynopolis that it is represented by a bishop called Paul at the Fourth Council of Constantinople. From the following century to the 12th, it appears with reduced status as a suffragan of Trajanopolis in Rhodope. In the 13th century it became a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

bishopric. The see is mentioned under the name Mosynopolis also in the ''

Notitiae Episcopatuum The ''Notitiae Episcopatuum'' (singular: ''Notitia Episcopatuum'') are official documents that furnish Eastern countries the list and hierarchical rank of the metropolitan and suffragan bishoprics of a church. In the Roman Church (the -mostly Lat ...

'' of Leo the Wise, about 900; in that for 940; in that for 1170 under the name of Misinoupolis.Siméon Vailhé, "Mosynoupolis" in ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' (New York 1911)
/ref> After the destruction of the city, the

Patriarchate of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ( el, Οἰκουμενικὸν Πατριαρχεῖον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, translit=Oikoumenikón Patriarkhíon Konstantinoupóleos, ; la, Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constanti ...

in August 1347 authorized the Metropolitan of Trajanopolis to exercise jurisdiction in what had been the see of Maximianopolis or Mosynopolis.

Titular see

The bishopric is included in the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

's list of

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbis ...

s both as an archiepiscopal see under the name Maximianopolis in Rhodope and as a suffragan diocese of Mosynopolis subject to Trajanopolis in Rhodope.''Annuario Pontificio 2013'', p. 934 The diocese was nominally restored in 1933 as the Latin Catholic titular archbishopric Massimianopolis in Rhodope. It is vacant, having had a single incumbent of the intermediary (archiepiscopal) rank : * Adam Hefter (5 December 1939 – 9 January 1970), previously Bishop of Gurk (Austria) (26 December 1914 – 4 May 1939) and Titular Bishop of

Marciana Marciana is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Livorno, Tuscany (Italy), located in the western Elba Elba ( it, isola d'Elba, ; la, Ilva) is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian ma ...

(4 May 1939 – 5 December 1939)

Photographs

Image:20100418_Maximianoupolis_Mosynopolis_Rhodope_Thrace_Greece_1.jpg , Fortress: a little south from the church. Image:20100418_Maximianoupolis_Mosynopolis_Rhodope_Thrace_Greece_3.jpg , A central plan church. Image:20100418_Maximianoupolis_Mosynopolis_Rhodope_Thrace_Greece_4.jpg , A central plan church. Image:20100418_Maximianoupolis_Mosynopolis_Rhodope_Thrace_Greece_5.jpg , A central plan church.

References

Source and External links