Arabissus or Arabissos (), also known as Tripotamos, was a town in ancient Cataonia, then

Cappadocia Cappadocia (; , from ) is a historical region in Central Anatolia region, Turkey. It is largely in the provinces of Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. Today, the touristic Cappadocia Region is located in Nevşehir ...

, and later in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) 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 ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

of Armenia Secunda.

History

The Byzantine Emperor Maurice was born there in 539 who embellished it during his reign. The town suffered from the earthquake of 584/85 and in July 629, emperor

Heraclius Heraclius (; 11 February 641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular emperor Phocas. Heraclius's reign was ...

met here with

Shahrbaraz Shahrbaraz (also spelled Shahrvaraz or Shahrwaraz; New Persian: ) was shah (king) of the Sasanian Empire from 27 April 630 to 9 June 630. He usurped the throne from Ardashir III, and was killed by Iranian nobles after forty days. Before usurp ...

to arrange terms with Persia to end the ongoing war. The town belonged to the so-called Armenian Hexapolis and remained under Byzantine control in the seventh century. It suffered much during the wars with the Arabs and became the center of a kleisoura. After Sayf al-Dawla ravaged Arabissos and its environment in his campaigns of 944 and 951, the town was replaced by Plasta.

Location

The town corresponds to present-day

Afşin Afşin is a municipality and district of Kahramanmaraş Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,502 km2, and its population is 80,044 (2022). It is the location of the ancient town Arabissus. Afşin-Elbistan power stations Two coal fired power ...

, formerly Yarpuz, in

Kahramanmaraş Province Kahramanmaraş Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is 14,520 km2, and its population is 1,177,436 (2022). Its provincial capital is the city o ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. A cave of the

Seven Sleepers The Seven Sleepers (; ), also known in Christendom as Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, and in Islam as Aṣḥāb al-Kahf (اصحاب الکهف, ''aṣḥāb al-kahf'', lit. Companions of the Cave), is a Late antiquity, late antique Christianity, ...

is located in the

Eshab-ı Kehf Kulliye Eshab-ı Kehf Kulliye is a historical building complex in Kahramanmaraş Province, Turkey. Geography The complex is next to a cave in on a hill named Bencilus to Afşin ilçe (district) of Kahramanmaraş Province. Its distance to Kahramanmar ...

Ecclesiastical history

Arabissus was an

episcopal see An episcopal see is the area of a bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Phrases concerning actions occurring within or outside an episcopal see are indicative of the geographical significance of the term, making it synonymous with ''diocese'' ...

, a

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

of Melitene. Its diocesan bishops included Otreius, who was at the

First Council of Constantinople The First Council of Constantinople (; ) was a council of Christian bishops convened in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) in AD 381 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I. This second ecumenical council, an effort to attain consensus in the ...

in 381, and Adolius at the

Council of Chalcedon The Council of Chalcedon (; ) was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bithynia (modern-day Kadıköy, Istanbul, Turkey) from 8 Oct ...

in 451, Adelphius, who was a signatory of the 458 letter of the bishops of the province of Armenia II to

Byzantine Emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

Leo I the Thracian Leo I (; 401 – 18 January 474), also known as "the Thracian" (; ), was Eastern Roman emperor from 457 to 474. He was a native of Dacia Aureliana near historic Thrace. He is sometimes surnamed with the epithet "the Great" (; ), probably to ...

to protest at the murder of

Proterius of Alexandria Pope Proterius of Alexandria (died 457) was Patriarch of Alexandria from 451 to 457. He had been appointed by the Council of Chalcedon to replace the deposed Dioscorus. He regarded as hieromartyr by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic ...

, the writer Leontius, who came later, and Georgius, who was at the

Trullan Council The Quinisext Council (; , literally meaning, ''Fifth-Sixth Meeting''), i.e., the Fifth-Sixth Council, often called the Council ''in Trullo'', Trullan Council, or the Penthekte Synod, was a church council held in 692 at Constantinople under Ju ...

of 692.

Michael the Syrian Michael the Syrian (),(), died AD 1199, also known as Michael the Great () or Michael Syrus or Michael the Elder, to distinguish him from his nephew, was a patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 1166 to 1199. He is best known today as th ...

mentions several

Jacobite Church The Syriac Orthodox Church (), also informally known as the Jacobite Church, is an Oriental Orthodox Christian denomination, denomination that originates from the Church of Antioch. The church currently has around 4-5 million followers. The ch ...

bishops of Arabissus of the 7th to the 10th centuries. Its

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

s include

Stephen Peter Alencastre Bishop Stephen Peter Alencastre, SSCC (born Estêvão Pedro de Alencastre; November 3, 1876 – November 9, 1940) was a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the fifth and last Vicar Apostolic of the Vicariate Apostolic of the Haw ...

(1924–1940). Arabissus is now a

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 archbi ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

.''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ), p. 836

References

Sources

* * ;Attribution * The entry cites: **

Le Quien Michel Le Quien (8 October 1661, Boulogne-sur-Mer – 12 March 1733, Paris) was a French historian and theologian. Biography Le Quien studied at , Paris, and at twenty entered the Dominican convent in Faubourg Saint-Germain, where he made ...

, ''Oriens Christianus'' (1740), I, 449-450 Populated places in ancient Cataonia Populated places in ancient Cappadocia Roman towns and cities in Turkey Catholic titular sees in Asia Populated places of the Byzantine Empire {{Byzantine-geo-stub