Cissita was a town and bishopric of

Roman North Africa Africa Proconsularis was a Roman province on the northern African coast that was established in 146 BC following the defeat of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisia, the northeast of Algeria, ...

, which only remains as a Catholic

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 ...

History

Cissita was located about 36°54'04"N 10°2' 9.96"W and has been tentatively identified with ruins near Sidi T(h)abet, 24 kilometers from

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

. The town was among the many

civitates In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities () on th ...

(cities) of 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 ...

Africa Proconsularis Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

of sufficient importance to become a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan of

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the clas ...

, in the papal sway, but like most faded completely, probably at the 7th-century advent of Islam. Two of its bishops are historically documented (one disputed): * Quodvultdeus was among the

Donatist Donatism was a Christian sect leading to a schism in the Church, in the region of the Church of Carthage, from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and the ...

bishops present at the

Council of Carthage (411) The Councils of Carthage were church synods held during the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries in the city of Carthage in Africa. The most important of these are described below. Synod of 251 In May 251 a synod, assembled under the presidency of Cyprian ...

, where his schismatic heresy was condemned as such. * Crescens was among the Catholic prelates at the Council of Carthage in 484 by king

Huneric Huneric, Hunneric or Honeric (died December 23, 484) was King of the (North African) Vandal Kingdom (477–484) and the oldest son of Gaiseric. He abandoned the imperial politics of his father and concentrated mainly on internal affairs. He was ...

of the Vandal Kingdom, and was exiled following the conference like most Catholic bishops.

Titular see

The diocese of Cissita was nominally restored in 1933 as the Latin

titular bishopric 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 ...

of Cissita (Latin = Curiate Italian) / (Latin adjective) It has had the following incumbents, of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank:Titular Episcopal See of Cissita
at GCatholic.org. * Heinrich Gleumes (1948.10.08 – death 1951.08.26) as Auxiliary Bishop of

Diocese of Münster In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

(Germany) (1948.10.08 – 1951.08.26) * Francis Clement van Hoeck,

Subiaco Cassinese Benedictines The Subiaco Cassinese Congregation is an international union of Benedictine houses (abbeys and priories) within the Benedictine Confederation. It developed from the Subiaco Congregation, which was formed in 1867 through the initiative of Dom Pietro ...

(O.S.B. Subl.) (1954.01.06 – death 1976.04.20), first as

Abbot Ordinary Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

of the

Territorial Abbey of Pietersburg St Benedict's Abbey, Pietersburg (Polokwane), Limpopo, South Africa, is a Benedictine monastery of the Subiaco Congregation. It began in 1911 as a mission territory; the community established a monastery in 1937. As an Abbey Nullius, the monaster ...

(South Africa) (1954.01.06 – 1975), then as emeritate * Antonio Pagano (1977.08.27 – 1983.12.18) * Salvatore Di Salvo (1984.04.09 – 2005.12.05) * Octavio Villegas Aguilar (2005.12.29 – ...), first as Auxiliary Bishop of

Archdiocese of Morelia The Archdiocese of Morelia ( la, Archidioecesis Moreliensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in western central Mexico.List of Catholic dioceses in Tunisia The Catholic Church in Tunisia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. Dioceses The Catholic church in Tunisia presently comprises only a single Latin archbishopric, in the national ca ...

Cissi Djinet (Arabic: جنّات ''Jannāt''), the classical Cissi, is a port town and commune in the Bordj Menaïel District of Boumerdès Province, Algeria, east of the mouth of the Isser River and around Cape Djinet. As of 2008, the population of t ...

, ancient city and former bishopric in Roman Mauretania, which had been confused with Cissita

References

Sources and external links

GCatholic - (former &) titular bishopric
; Bibliography - ecclesiastical history * Pius Bonifacius Gams, ''Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae'', Leipzig 1931, p. 465 * Stefano Antonio Morcelli, ''Africa christiana'', Volume I, Brescia 1816, p. 139 * J. Ferron, lemma 'Cicsi' in ''Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques'', vol. XII, Paris 1953, coll. 827-828 Catholic titular sees in Africa Former Roman Catholic dioceses in Africa Roman towns and cities in Tunisia Suppressed Roman Catholic dioceses {{AncientRome-stub