Vagada, also known as Vagadensis and Bagatensis, was a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

Numidia Numidia ( Berber: ''Inumiden''; 202–40 BC) was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians located in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up modern-day Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunis ...

. It was a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

diocese.

Location

Vagada was located in the region of

. It has been tentatively identified with the ruins at El-Aira in the modern

Constantine Province Constantine ( ar, ولاية قسنطينة) is one of the 58 provinces (''wilayas'') of Algeria, whose capital is the city of the same name. History In 1984 Mila Province Mila ( ar, ولاية ميلة, link=no, ) is a province (''wilayah' ...

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

(36° 19' 3" North, 6° 49' 43" East), situated between what was

Cirta Cirta, also known by various other names in antiquity, was the ancient Berber and Roman settlement which later became Constantine, Algeria. Cirta was the capital city of the Berber kingdom of Numidia; its strategically important port city w ...

and

Thibilis Thibilis (a.k.a. Tibilis) was a Roman and Byzantine era town in what was Numidia but is today northeast Algeria. The site has extensive Roman and Byzantine ruins. History The numerous Latin inscriptions discovered on the site of Thibilis provided i ...

. Vagada was known to be on the Magerada River. Epigraphic remains have given the name of the town as Bagatensis.

Bishopric

Vagada was also the seat of an ancient

bishopric 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 ...

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 ...

. The only known bishop of this diocese from antiquity is Fulgentius, who took part in the

Council of Carthage (484) 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 ...

by the

Vandal The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The Vandals migrated to the area betw ...

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 ...

, after which Fulgentius was exiled. The current

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

Bohdan Dzyurakh Bishop Bohdan Dzyurakh, C.Ss.R. (b. 1967, Hirske, Lviv Oblast, Ukrainian SSR) is a curial bishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and titular bishop of Vagada. He is also head of the Supervisory Council of the Construction of the Patriarch ...

, curial bishop of major archbishopric of Kyïv-Halyč who succeeded Robert Camilleri Azzopardi in 2004.Vagada
at www.gcatholic.org. Other notable bishops include

Paul Bouque Paul Bouque (6 July 1896 – 15 August 1979) was Bishop of Nkongsamba, Cameroon, from September 1955 until 16 June 1964, when he resigned. Life Paul Bouque was born in Hauconcourt, France on 6 July 1896. He was ordained a priest of Congregation o ...

(28 May 1934 Appointed – 14 Sep 1955) and

Denis James Hart Denis James Hart (born 16 May 1941) is a retired Australian prelate of the Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Melbourne from 2001 to 2018. Early years and background Hart was born in East Melbourne, Victoria, the eldest of the three ch ...

(10 Nov 1997 Appointed – 22 Jun 2001). Known bishops * Fulgenzio (

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

484) * Paul Bouque, (1934–1955) * Joannes Maria Michael Holterman (1956–1958) * José Lecuona Labandibar(1958–1997) *

(1997–2001) * Robert Camilleri Azzopardi (2001–2004) *

(2005–current)

References

{{coord missing, Algeria Archaeological sites in Algeria Roman towns and cities in Mauretania Caesariensis Ancient Berber cities 4th-century disestablishments History of Constantine Province Catholic titular sees in Africa Former Roman Catholic dioceses in Africa