Motella, Metello(u)polis, or Pulcherianopolis was a city in the Roman province of
Phrygia Pacatiana, in
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
, probably on the site of the modern
Medele.
Inscriptions make known a
Phrygian town named Motella, which name is connected with the Phrygian feminine proper name Motalis and the Cilician masculine Motales, as also with Mutalli, or Mutallu, the name of an ancient
Hittite king of Northern
Commagene
Commagene ( grc-gre, Κομμαγηνή) was an ancient Greco-Iranian kingdom ruled by a Hellenized branch of the Iranian Orontid dynasty that had ruled over Armenia. The kingdom was located in and around the ancient city of Samosata, which s ...
. One of these inscriptions was found in the village of
Medele, which evidently preserves the ancient name.
Motella seems to be the town which
Hierocles calls Pulcherianopolis.
Ecclesiastical history
Motella may be supposed to have been raised to the rank of a bishopric by the
Empress Pulcheria (414-53). Shortly before 553, perhaps in 535, the
Emperor Justinian
Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized '' renova ...
raised
Hierapolis to
metropolitan rank, and attached to it a certain number of
suffragan see
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, ...
s previously dependent on Laodicea. Among these 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 Lat ...
'' mention, from the ninth to the twelfth or thirteenth century, this same Motella, which they call Metellopolis, and even once Metallopolis.
An inscription informs us of Bishop Michael, in 556; and another, of Bishop Cyriacus, perhaps in 667. At the
Council of Nicaea in 787, the see was represented by Eudoxius, a priest and monk. Bishop Michael attended the two councils of
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
in
869 and
879
__NOTOC__
Year 879 ( DCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* April 10 – King Louis the Stammerer dies at Compiègne, after a reign ...
.
The bishopric of Metellopolis is included 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 ...
's list of
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 ...
s. In 1660
Ignace Cotolendi
Ignace Cotolendi, MEP (23 March 1630 – 16 August 1662) was a French bishop. He was a founding member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and became a missionary in Asia.
Life
Born in Brignoles, Var, Cotolendi was recruited by Alexander ...
(1630-62) was appointed titular bishop of Metellopolis (Medele) with jurisdiction over three provinces of northeastern China, Tartary, and Korea.
[Donald F. Lach and Edwin J. van Kley, ''Trade, Missions, Literature,'' Donald F. Lach, ''Asia in the Making of Europe'', Volume 3, Book 1, ''A Century of Advance'', Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press, 1993, p.231.]
References
*
Le Quien
Michel Le Quien (8 October 1661, Boulogne-sur-Mer – 12 March 1733, Paris) was a French historian and theologian. He studied at Plessis College, Paris, and at twenty entered the Dominican convent in Faubourg Saint-Germain, where he made his p ...
, ''Oriens Christianus'', I, 826 (very incomplete);
*
William Mitchell Ramsay
Sir William Mitchell Ramsay, FBA (15 March 185120 April 1939) was a Scottish archaeologist and New Testament scholar. By his death in 1939 he had become the foremost authority of his day on the history of Asia Minor and a leading scholar in th ...
, ''Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia'', 109, 121, 141, 158, 541.
External links
*
''Catholic Hierarchy'' page
;Attribution
Populated places in Phrygia
Populated places of the Byzantine Empire
Roman towns and cities in Turkey
Catholic titular sees in Asia
History of Denizli Province
Defunct dioceses of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
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