Leuce ( grc, Λευκὴ) was a town and

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 ...

in the late

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 ...

Thracia Thracia or Thrace ( ''Thrakē'') is the ancient name given to the southeastern Balkan region, the land inhabited by the Thracians. Thrace was ruled by the Odrysian kingdom during the Classical and Hellenistic eras, and briefly by the Greek ...

.''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), p. 917

The town

The town is mentioned as Leuce Acte ( grc, Λευκὴ Ἀκτή) by

Pseudo-Skylax The ''Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax'' is an ancient Greek periplus (περίπλους ''períplous'', 'circumnavigation') describing the sea route around the Mediterranean and Black Sea. It probably dates from the mid-4th century BC, specifically t ...

; he wrote that Leuke Akte is on Propontis (eastern Thrace), and as one sails along the coast, he meets the cities in the sequence Leuke Akte, Teiristasis, Heracleia, Ganos, Neon Teichos, and Selymbria. The town has not been identified with certainty. Suggestions include the villages of Lefke and Capolova in northern Greece.Sophrone Pétridès, "Leuce" in ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' (New York 1910)
/ref> The city was also mentioned by

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...

and

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...

.Strabo, Geography, §7.8.55
/ref>

The bishopric

Leuce had a bishop by at latest 381, when a Bishop Symeon of Leuce took part in the

First Council of Constantinople The First Council of Constantinople ( la, Concilium Constantinopolitanum; grc-gre, Σύνοδος τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως) was a council of Christian bishops convened in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) in AD 381 b ...

. The ''

Notitiae 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 10th to the 13th centuries mention it among the suffragans of Philippopolis, 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 Thracia, thus ruling out the identification of Leuce with today's Plovdiv in Bulgaria, although this identification has been proposed. Leuce is now listed in the ''

Annuario Pontificio The ''Annuario Pontificio'' (Italian for ''Pontifical Yearbook'') is the annual directory of the Holy See of the Catholic Church. It lists the popes in chronological order and all officials of the Holy See's departments. It also provides names ...

'' as 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 archbish ...

of 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 ...

References

{{reflist Catholic titular sees in Europe History of Thrace Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey Archaeological sites in the Aegean Region