The Diocese of Cephas (in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

Dioecesis Cephasena) is a suppressed seat in the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. The official title is Titular Episcopal See of Cephas. Cephas, located on the Tigris River in

Tur Abdin Tur Abdin ( syr, ܛܽܘܪ ܥܰܒ݂ܕܺܝܢ or ܛܘܼܪ ܥܲܒ݂ܕܝܼܢ, Ṭūr ʿAḇdīn) is a hilly region situated in southeast Turkey, including the eastern half of the Mardin Province, and Şırnak Province west of the Tigris, on the borde ...

, was an ancient episcopal seat of the Roman province of Mesopotamia in the diocese of the East. It was part of the Patriarchate of Antioch and was a

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdictiona ...

of the Archdiocese of Amida, as attested by a 6th century '' Notitiae Episcopatuum'', official documentation that furnishes the list and hierarchical rank of the

metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

and suffragan bishoprics of a church. Today Diocese of Cephas survives as only a titular bishop's seat. The seat is vacant since 1974.

Bishops

There are two known historical bishops of this ancient episcopal seat. The first, Benjamin, was bishop in the 4th century. He is mentioned in the biography of James the Egyptian, exiled in this region during the persecutions of the Emperor

Julian Julian may refer to: People * Julian (emperor) (331–363), Roman emperor from 361 to 363 * Julian (Rome), referring to the Roman gens Julia, with imperial dynasty offshoots * Saint Julian (disambiguation), several Christian saints * Julian (give ...

( la, Flavius Claudius Iulianus Augustus) also known as Julian the Apostate. The second bishop is Noé who was bishop in the 5th century. He took part in the

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of 451 AD and signed the Greek bishops' letter to Emperor

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( la, Flavius Valerius Leo Augustus) also known as Leo the Thracian in 458 following the killing of the pro-

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Proterius on the hands of

anti-Chalcedonian Non-Chalcedonian Christianity comprises the branches of Christianity that do not accept theological resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon, the Fourth Ecumenical Council, held in 451. Non-Chalcedonian denominations reject the Christological D ...

Coptic mobs In the following centuries the Cephas diocese also had Jacobite bishops.Chabot i
''Revue de l'Orient chrétien''
6 (1901), p. 198.

Titular Bishopric

Today Diocese of Cephas survives as a titular bishopric seat of the Catholic Church based in the Middle East. It was established in 1933 as a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Amida (1725-1970). It was given as a title to a number of eparchs and bishops of the Catholic Church. The titular bishopric is presently suppressed and has remained vacant since May 5, 1974 with no further bishops assigned the title.

List of Bishops

(Not comprehensive) *Benjamin (4th century) *Noé (mid-5th century)

Titular bishops (modern era)

*Archbishop Jules Georges Kandela (May 12, 1951 - March 7, 1952) - Confirmed Titular Bishop of Cephas of the Syrian Catholic Archeparchy of Mosul *Bishop Miguel Antonio Medina y Medina (16 July 1952 - 23 March 1964) - Appointed bishop of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cali,

Archdiocese of Medellín 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 ...

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*Bishop Kuriakose Kunnacherry (9 December 1967 - 5 May 1974) - As eparch of Syro-Malabar Catholic Archeparchy of Kottayam *''Vacant since 1974''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cephas, Diocese of Catholic titular sees in Asia