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 archbish ...

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 A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria ...

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 classi ...

, 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 t ...

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 m ...

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 archbish ...

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 (O.S.B. Subl.) (1954.01.06 – death 1976.04.20), first as Abbot Ordinary of the Territorial Abbey of Pietersburg (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 (Mexico) (2005.12.29 – 2015.04.08), then on emeritate (2015.04.08 - ...).

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

History

Titular see

See also

References

Sources and external links