Forontoniana was a

Roman town Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

of 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 ...

Byzacena Byzacena (or Byzacium) (, ''Byzakion'') was a Late Roman province in the central part of Roman North Africa, which is now roughly Tunisia, split off from Africa Proconsularis. History At the end of the 3rd century AD, the Roman emperor Dioclet ...

during

late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

. The town has tentatively been identified with the ruins at Henchir-Bir-El-Menadla in modern

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

. Forontoniana was also the seat of an ancient

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'' ...

of 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 ...

. The only known bishop of this diocese was Felix, who took part in the synod in Carthage in 484 called by the

Vandal The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vandal ...

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 ma ...

, after which Felix was exiled. Today Forontoniana survives as a

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 ...

ric.

Known Bishops

*Felix (mentioned in 484) *

Luigi Poggi Luigi Poggi (25 November 1917 – 4 May 2010) was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate, nuncio, and spymaster who led The Entity, the foreign intelligence service of the Holy See. Made titular bishop of Forontoniana in 1965 upon assignment as ...

(1965–1994) * Pierfranco Shepherd (1994–2015) *

Dagoberto Campos Salas Dagoberto Campos Salas is a Costa Rican prelate of the Catholic Church who works in the diplomatic service of the Holy See. He has served as the Apostolic Nuncio to Panama since 2022. He is the first native of Costa Rica to hold the title of a ...

(2018- )La sede titolare
nel sito di www.catholic-hierarchy.org

References

{{coord missing, Tunisia Catholic titular sees in Africa Archaeological sites in Tunisia Roman towns and cities in Tunisia