It is located 9 km. northeast of Ödemiş/İzmir.(ref: Tmolos’ta saklı kutsal bir kent Dioshieron, Hüseyin Üreten, Journal of International Social Research , Vol 9, Issue 44: 562-578) Dios Hieron (, meaning 'Sanctuary of Zeus') was a town of

ancient Lydia Lydia (; ) was an Iron Age kingdom situated in western Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Later, it became an important province of the Achaemenid Empire and then the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sardis. At some point before 800 BC, the Lyd ...

, in the upper valley of the Cayster River. The city became part of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

and 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 ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

with the annexation of the

Attalid kingdom The Kingdom of Pergamon, Pergamene Kingdom, or Attalid kingdom was a Greek state during the Hellenistic period that ruled much of the Western part of Asia Minor from its capital city of Pergamon. It was ruled by the Attalid dynasty (; ). The ...

. It also bore the name Diospolis (Διόσπολις), and was cited by the sixth century Byzantine geographer

Stephanus of Byzantium Stephanus or Stephen of Byzantium (; , ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD) was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethnica'' (). Only meagre fragments of the dictionary survive, but the epit ...

under that name. It was renamed to Christopolis or Christoupolis (Χριστούπολις, meaning 'city of Christ') in the 7th century and was known as Pyrgium or Pyrgion (Πυργίον) from the 12th century on. Pyrgion fell to the Turks in 1307, and became the capital of the beylik of Aydin. The town minted coins in antiquity, often with the inscription "Διοσιερειτων". Its site is located near

Birgi Birgi is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of Ödemiş, İzmir Province, Turkey. Its population is 1,832 (2022). Before the 2013 reorganisation, it was a town (''belde''). Its current name is a turkified version of its medieval Gr ...

, Asiatic Turkey.

Bishopric

The

Roman Era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

city had an ancient

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

bishop and is attested as 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'' ...

from at least 451. It was 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 ...

Ephesus Ephesus (; ; ; may ultimately derive from ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, in present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital ...

, which it remained under until the late 12th century when it became a separate

metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

. There are four known bishops from antiquity. *Stephen took part in 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 ...

of 431 *Eustorgios was not present 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 ...

(451) and his metropolitan, Stephen of Ephesus, signed on his behalf *Zoetus was among the fathers of the Council of Constantinople of 680 and the

Council in Trullo 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 Jus ...

of 692 *Stephen of Pyrgion participated at the two Councils of Constantinople in 869–870 and 879–880 who dealt with the issue of Patriarch

Photios I of Constantinople Photius I of Constantinople (, ''Phōtios''; 815 – 6 February 893), also spelled ''Photius''Fr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., and Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Mate ...

Today Dioshieron survives as

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 ...

in the

Roman 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 ...

, so far the see has never been assigned.Dioshieron
at GCatholic.org.

References

Populated places in ancient Lydia Former populated places in Turkey Former dioceses in Asia Defunct dioceses of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Titular sees in Asia Roman towns and cities in Turkey Populated places of the Byzantine Empire Ödemiş District History of İzmir Province {{coords, 38.2276, N, 28.0833, E, display=title, format=dms, source:http://dare.ht.lu.se/places/29503