Marmaritzana ( el, Μαρμαριτζάνα) was a medieval

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

city and bishopric in

Central Greece Continental Greece ( el, Στερεά Ελλάδα, Stereá Elláda; formerly , ''Chérsos Ellás''), colloquially known as Roúmeli (Ρούμελη), is a traditional geographic region of Greece. In English, the area is usually called Central ...

. The exact site of the city is unknown, except that it lay in the upper valley of the

Spercheios River The Spercheios (, ''Sperkheiós''), also known as the Spercheus from its Latin name, is a river in Phthiotis in central Greece. It is long, and its drainage area is . It was worshipped as a god in the ancient Greek religion and appears in some c ...

, west of Neopatras (modern

Ypati Ypati ( el, Υπάτη) is a village and a former municipality in Phthiotis, central peninsular Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality of Lamia, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an a ...

). The city is mostly unknown except for the fact that it was an

episcopal see An episcopal see is, in a practical use of the phrase, 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, mak ...

attested at least since the time of

Byzantine emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...

Leo VI the Wise Leo VI, called the Wise ( gr, Λέων ὁ Σοφός, Léōn ho Sophós, 19 September 866 – 11 May 912), was Byzantine Emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty (although his parentage is unclear), he was very well r ...

(r. 886–912) until the 13th century. It was the only

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

metropolitan see 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 t ...

of Neopatras. It may be identical with the see of Marmaritzion, mentioned in a single ''

Notitia Episcopatuum The ''Notitiae Episcopatuum'' (singular: ''Notitia Episcopatuum'') are official documents that furnish Eastern countries the list and hierarchical rank of the metropolitan and suffragan bishoprics of a church. In the Roman Church (the -mostly Lati ...

'' of the 11th century as a

of the

Metropolis of Larissa The Metropolis of Larissa and Tyrnavos ( el, Ιερά Μητρόπολις Λαρίσης και Τυρνάβου) is a Greek Orthodox metropolitan see in Thessaly, Greece. History Christianity penetrated early to Larissa, though its first bishop ...

. Following the

Fourth Crusade The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...

, the episcopal lists of the

Roman 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 ...

included it as ''Valacensis'' or ''Lavacensis'', but the see probably remained vacant, whether by Greek Orthodox or by Latin Catholic bishops, from the early 13th century on. The see remains a

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 the Catholic ChurchGCatholic
/ref> since its nominal restoration in 1933, as "Marmarizana". It is long vacant, having had a single incumbent of the lowest (episcopal) rank: Thomas O’Beirne (1739.08.26 – 1739.09.16), later

Coadjutor Bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) is a bishop in the Catholic, Anglican, and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in the administration of the diocese. The coadjutor (literally, "co ...

of Ardagh (Ireland) (1739.08.26 – 1739.09.16), succeeding as Bishop of Ardagh (1739.09.16 – 1747.01).

References

Sources

* {{cite book , last1 = Koder , first1 = Johannes , last2 = Hild , first2 = Friedrich , title = Tabula Imperii Byzantini, Band 1: Hellas und Thessalia , language = German , publisher = Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften , location = Vienna , year = 1976 , isbn = 3-7001-0182-1 , url-access = registration , url = https://archive.org/details/tabulaimperiibyz0000unse
GCatholic, with titular incumbent bio links
Populated places of the Byzantine Empire Former populated places in Greece Medieval Central Greece Catholic titular sees in Europe Defunct dioceses of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople History of Phthiotis Spercheios Valley