The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sidon was a
bishopric
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 ...
in the
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem ( la, Regnum Hierosolymitanum; fro, Roiaume de Jherusalem), officially known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem or the Frankish Kingdom of Palestine,Example (title of works): was a Crusader state that was establish ...
in the 12th and 13th centuries.
Establishment
Before the arrival of the crusaders to Syria in the late 11th century, the Orthodox bishops of Sidon had been suffragans of the
archbishops of Tyre, who were in turn subject to the authority of the
Orthodox patriarchs of Antioch. The first crusader
king of Jerusalem
The King of Jerusalem was the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Crusader state founded in Jerusalem by the Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade, when the city was conquered in 1099.
Godfrey of Bouillon, the first ruler of t ...
,
Baldwin I captured Sidon with the assistance of Venetian and Norwegian fleets on 5 December 1110. He wanted to ensure that all sees in his kingdom were subject to the
Latin patriarchs of Jerusalem
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem ( la, Patriarchatus Latinus Hierosolymitanus) is the Latin Catholic ecclesiastical patriarchate in Jerusalem, officially seated in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was originally established in 1099, wi ...
. He and
Patriarch Ghibbelin, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, asked
Pope Paschal II
Pope Paschal II ( la, Paschalis II; 1050 1055 – 21 January 1118), born Ranierius, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 August 1099 to his death in 1118. A monk of the Abbey of Cluny, he was cre ...
to authorize the expansion of the jurisdiction of the see of Jerusalem to include the diocese of Sidon. The Pope accepted their proposal and declared in 1111 that the boundaries of the ecclesiastic provinces should follow the political borders, making Sidon subject to Jerusalem. However, the
patriarchs of Antioch
The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certain ...
,
Bernard of Valence Bernard of Valence (died 1135) was the Latin Patriarch of Antioch from 1100 to 1135.
Originally from Valence, Bernard was part of the army of Raymond of Saint-Gilles and attended the Battle of Harran, and Battle of Sarmada with Roger of Salerno ...
, lodged an objection with the Holy See and prevented the appointment of a bishop subject to Jerusalem at Sidon.
From the 14th-century, the Sidon became 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 archbis ...
.
Bishops
* Bernard (1131–1153)
* Amalric ( 1153–1170)
* Odo (1175–1190)
*
Raoul of Merencourt (1210–1214)
* Geoffrey Ardel (1236–1247)
* John of Saint Maxentius (1266–1267)
* Adam of Romery ( 1274)
References
Sources
*
*
*
{{coord missing, Lebanon
Sidon
Sidon ( ; he, צִידוֹן, ''Ṣīḏōn'') known locally as Sayda or Saida ( ar, صيدا ''Ṣaydā''), is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, of which it is the capital, on the Mediterranean coast. ...
Medieval Lebanon
Catholic Church in the Middle East