The Diocese of Gaza (Latin: ''Dioecesis Gazensis'') was a bishopric in the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

. Its episcopal see was the city of Gaza and it is now a vacant

Latin Catholic The Latin Church () is the largest autonomous () particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Catholics. The Latin Church is one of 24 ''sui iuris'' churches in full communion w ...

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 ...

Early history

According to

Dorotheus of Tyre Saint Dorotheus (Greek: Άγιος Δωρόθεος) bishop of Tyre (present-day Lebanon; c. 255 – 362) is traditionally credited with an ''Acts'' of the Seventy Apostles (which may be the same work as the lost '' Gospel of the Seventy''), wh ...

, the first bishop was a certain Philemon who was believed to have been one of the

seventy disciples The seventy disciples (Greek language, Greek: ἑβδομήκοντα μαθητές, ''hebdomikonta mathetes''), known in the Eastern Christianity, Eastern Christian traditions as the seventy apostles (Greek language, Greek: ἑβδομήκον� ...

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

and was mentioned by

St. Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

. An early bishop called saint Silvanus (not to be confused with Abba Silvanus) is said to have been killed with thirty-nine other

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

s in the copper mines of Phaeno around the year 310. In the early 4th century, the emperor Constantine endowed the town of Maiuma, which formerly had served as Gaza's harbour, with city rights and the status of an episcopal see. Though its city rights were cancelled later, it remained its own bishopric. Israel Byzantine 5c

The first attested bishop is Asclepias (also Asclepas) of Gaza who is known to have attended the

First Council of Nicaea The First Council of Nicaea ( ; ) was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I. The Council of Nicaea met from May until the end of July 325. This ec ...

in 325. As an ardent supporter of

Athanasius of Alexandria Athanasius I of Alexandria ( – 2 May 373), also called Athanasius the Great, Athanasius the Confessor, or, among Coptic Christians, Athanasius the Apostolic, was a Christian theologian and the 20th patriarch of Alexandria (as Athanasius ...

, he was deposed around the year 326 or 327, but was later reinstated at the

council of Serdica The Council of Serdica, or Synod of Serdica (also Sardica located in modern-day Sofia, Bulgaria), was a synod convened in 343 at Serdica in the civil diocese of Dacia, by Emperors Constans I, Augustus in the West, and Constantius II, Augustus in ...

while Quintianus, who in the meantime had usurped the episcopal see, was

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in communion with other members of the con ...

. As Gaza was still fairly pagan, Asclepias constructed an oratory, later referred to as "Old Church", to the west of the city. His successor Irenaeus seems to have been able to erect a small church in the city, attended the council of Antioch in 363 and is commemorated as a saint. Under Porphyrius, who became bishop around the year 395, the temple of Marnas and all other pagan temples of the town were closed and destroyed. His successor Netoras attended the

council of Ephesus The Council of Ephesus was a council of Christian bishops convened in Ephesus (near present-day Selçuk in Turkey) in AD 431 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius II. This third ecumenical council, an effort to attain consensus in the church th ...

and the council of Chalcedon. After 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 ...

of 451, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the dioceses of Palestine, including Gaza, was shifted from the

patriarchate of Antioch The Patriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the bishop of Antioch (modern-day Antakya, Turkey). As the traditional "overseer" (, , from which the word ''bishop'' is derived) of the first gentile Christian community, the position has ...

to the newly created patriarchate of Jerusalem. The next bishop, Cyril, attended a council in Jerusalem in 518. In the 5th and 6th centuries, Gaza was a renowned center for rhetoric and classical education. In that time,

sophist A sophist () was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics and mathematics. They taught ''arete'', "virtue" or "excellen ...

s and priests shared the same education; this is exemplified by Marcianus, bishop in the mid-6th century, who was educated at the famous Rhetorical School of Gaza. From the orations of

Choricius of Gaza Choricius of Gaza () was a Gaza-based Greek sophist and rhetorician of Late Antiquity. With writings dating to the early sixth century, he flourished in the time of Anastasius I (AD 491–518) as a scholar and public orator. He is considered as p ...

, a fellow student at the school, some details of Marcianus' life are known, as is some information about the obligations of bishops. Quite exceptionally, Marcianus also headed the school for a time, possibly until a "full-time professor" could be found to fill the position. Marcianus commissioned churches, walls,

stoa A stoa (; plural, stoas,"stoa", ''Oxford English Dictionary'', 2nd Ed., 1989 stoai, or stoae ), in ancient Greek architecture, is a covered walkway or portico, commonly for public use. Early stoas were open at the entrance with columns, usually ...

s and bathhouses, defended the citizens from being exploited by soldiers, operated social welfare for the benefit of the poor and went to

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

as diplomatic representative of his town. Marcianus was also in close contact with the monastic communities around the town, especially those of the

monastery of Seridus The monastery of Seridus was a monastic community that flourished during the 6th and early 7th century in Palestine. Founded by Seridus of Gaza after whom the monastery was later named, it housed in the first half of the sixth century the well-k ...

. He regularly sought advice from the two hermits

Barsanuphius Barsanuphius (; ; ; died after 543), also known as Barsanuphius of Palestine, Barsanuphius of Gaza or Barsanuphius the Great (in Eastern Orthodoxy), was a Christian hermit and writer of the sixth century. He is considered one of the Desert Father ...

and

John the Prophet John the Prophet, known also as Venerable John, was an eastern christian hermit of the monastery of Seridus and teacher of Dorotheus of Gaza.Barnasuphius and John ''Letters'', translated by John Chryssavgis Catholic University of America Press ( ...

, such as on who to ordain as priest. Marcianus also attended the council of Jerusalem in 536.

Middle Ages

The next known bishop is Sulayman al-Ghazzi (also known as Solomon of Gaza) who became bishop in his 1080s after having lived through a period of hardship under the caliph al-Hakim who ordered the destruction of the

Holy Sepulchre The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also known as the Church of the Resurrection, is a fourth-century church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The church is the seat of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Some ...

in Jerusalem and the mandatory wearing of discriminatory clothing for Christians. He holds a unique space in the history of Arab Christian literature as he composed a large body of protest devotional poetry in Arabic which was the first collection of Christian religious Arabic poetry in Arabic in the Near East. Sulayman died some time after 1027. There is no firm evidence of a bishop when the

crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

came into the region. There seems to have been a bishop in Gaza up to 1056 when he was martyred, but no name has been recorded and Gaza seems to have been uninhabited when the crusaders found it. The newly-built town was then given to the

Templars The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a military order of the Catholic faith, and one of the most important military orders in Western Christianity. They were founded in 11 ...

but the episcopal see not occupied. However, the pastoral care of the Greeks and Syrians was given over to Meletos, bishop of

Eleutheropolis Bayt Jibrin or Beit Jibrin ( lit. 'House of the Powerful') was an Arab village in the Hebron Subdistrict of British Mandatory Palestine, in what is today the State of Israel, which was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It was ...

, who then also acted as bishop of Gaza and it seems that the

Latins The term Latins has been used throughout history to refer to various peoples, ethnicities and religious groups using Latin or the Latin-derived Romance languages, as part of the legacy of the Roman Empire. In the Ancient World, it referred to th ...

thus considered the see not abandoned.

Early Modern Period

During the 16th century the Christian population of Gaza increased as many Christians of the Transjordan towns migrated to Gaza, making it the biggest Christian city in the region. In 1838, there were only 150 Orthodox families left.

Orthodox Metropolitan

In 1652, Patriarch Paisius I of Jerusalem, the head of the

Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem,, ''Patriarcheîon Hierosolýmōn;'' , also known as the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, is an autocephalous church within the Eastern Orthodox Church organization, wider communion of Eastern Ort ...

, appointed the Greek scholar and adventurer Paisios Ligarides (–1678) as the Metropolitan (bishop) of Gaza. Although a

Greek Catholic Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine-Catholic Church may refer to: * The Catholic Church in Greece * The Eastern Catholic Churches The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Ea ...

(a Catholic of the Eastern Rite) cleric in the employ of the Vatican's , Ligarides presented himself to the Patriarch as

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

, while maintaining to local

Franciscans The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest conte ...

that he was, in effect, a Catholic acting as a "double agent", working to bring "schismatics" over to Rome; his actual motives are not entirely clear. He never spent a single day in the city of Gaza, absenting himself from his diocese in contravention of church law. By the 1670s, he had been disavowed by the See of Rome and defrocked by the

Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem The Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem or Eastern Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem, officially patriarch of Jerusalem (; ; ), is the head bishop of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, ranking fourth of nine patriarchs in the Easte ...

Restoration as Titular See

In 1895, the diocese was restored as a titular see. Since the death of

James Henry Ambrose Griffiths James Henry Ambrose Griffiths (July 16, 1903 – February 24, 1964) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York from 1950 to 1964. Biography Early life and education Jam ...

it is unoccupied. , there was only one Catholic church, the Holy Family Church with around 130 parishioners.

List of bishops

Resident bishops

* Philemon (1st century) * Silvanus of Gaza (died or 311) * Asclepias (also Asclepas) of Gaza () * Irenaeus () * Porphyrius (–420) * Netoras () * Cyril () * Marcianus () * Misael () * Sulayman al-Ghazzi (died )

Titular bishops

Since the restoration of the diocese as a

Catholic 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 ...

Titular Episcopal See around 1895, the following priests served as bishops: * Henricus (Hendrik) van de Wetering 1850–1929), in office 8 February 1895 – 11 July 1895, until his installation as archbishop of Utrecht and Primate of the Netherlands * Paolo Schinosi, appointed 19 April 1897, died in office 8 April 1901 † * Alfonso Archi, in office 13 July 1901 – 10 October 1902 † * Costanzo Castrale, appointed 27 March 1905; died 26 November 1936 † * Giovanni Battista Tirinnanzi , O.F.M. Cap., 2 July 1937 – 27 January 1949 † *

, appointed 15 October 1949; died in office 24 February 1964 † *

Sede vacante In the Catholic Church, ''sede vacante'' is the state during which a diocese or archdiocese is without a prelate installed in office, with the prelate's office being the cathedral. The term is used frequently in reference to a papal interre ...

since 24 February 1964

References

{{Reflist Catholic Church in Palestine Catholic titular sees in Asia Gaza City