Abusir Bana (), anciently known as Busiris (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: ; ), is a village in

Gharbia governorate Gharbia ( ', , "the western governorate") is one of the governorates of Egypt. It is located in the north of the country, south of Kafr El Sheikh Governorate, and north of Monufia Governorate. Its capital is Tanta, which is 90 km north of ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. The population is 22,214 people, according to the official census of 2006. In antiquity, Busiris was the chief town of the Ati nome in

. It stood east of Sais, near the Phatnitic mouth on the western bank of the Damietta Branch of the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

. The city's pharaonic name was Djedu. The modern name is a compound, where the name of the nearby town Bana (, ) was added to differentiate it from other settlements of the same name spread around Egypt.

History

The town and nome of Busiris were allotted to the Hermotybian division of the Egyptian militia. It was regarded as one of the birthplaces of the god of the underworld

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wikt:wsjr, wsjr'') was the ancient Egyptian deities, god of fertility, agriculture, the Ancient Egyptian religion#Afterlife, afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...

, who was commonly given the epithet lord of Djedu (nb ḏdw) and its name maybe etymologically linked. The festival of

Isis Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

at Busiris came next in splendor and importance to that of Bastet at Bubastis in the

Egyptian calendar The ancient Egyptian calendar – a civil calendar – was a solar calendar with a 365-day year. The year consisted of three seasons of 120 days each, plus an Egyptian intercalary month, intercalary month of five epagomenal days treated as outs ...

. Considerable ruins are still extant. The temple of Isis, indeed, with the hamlet which sprang up around it, stood probably at a short distance without the walls of Busiris itself, for Pliny (v. 10. s. 11) mentions '' Isidis oppidum'' in the neighbourhood of the town. The ruins of the temple are still visible, a little to the north of Abusir, at the hamlet of Bahheyt. (Pococke, ''Travels'', vol. i. p. 34; Minutoli, p. 304.)It was in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) 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 ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

of Aegyptus secundus. After the

Arab conquest of Egypt The Arab conquest of Egypt, led by the army of Amr ibn al-As, took place between 639 and 642 AD and was overseen by the Rashidun Caliphate. It ended the seven-century-long Roman Egypt, Roman period in Egypt that had begun in 30 BC and, more broa ...

the city was known as Busir Samannud () and it was the seat of a bishopric. The local

Copts Copts (; ) are a Christians, Christian ethnoreligious group, ethnoreligious group native to Northeast Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt since antiquity. They are, like the broader Egyptians, Egyptian population, des ...

believed that it was named after one of the sorcerers of Pharaoh, whose name was Busir.

Ecclesiastical history

Later, Busiris became a Christian bishopric. Extant documents provide the name of two of its early bishops: Hermaeon and Athanasius, the latter of whom took part in the Second Council of Ephesus in 449. In later centuries, from the 8th onward, the name of several of its non-Chalcedonian bishops are also known.

Titular see

No longer a residential bishopric, Busiris is today listed by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

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 archbi ...

''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), p. 854 of the lowest (episcopal) rank. The nominally revived diocese had the following near-consecutive incumbents: * Alexander Chulaparambil (1914.07.16 – 1923.12.21) * Celestino Annibale Cattaneo, Capuchin friars (O.F.M. Cap.) (later Archbishop) (1925.03.30 – 1936.03.03) * Ignazio Arnoz, Mill Hill Missionaries (M.H.M.) (1937.04.13 – 1950.02.26) * Johannes Albert von Rudloff (1950.04.08 – 1978.06.26) * Theodor Kettmann,

Auxiliary Bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

emeritus of

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; ; archaic English: ''Osnaburg'') is a city in Lower Saxony in western Germany. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population of 168 ...

(1978.11.27 – ... )

References

* {{SmithDGRG

External links

GigaCatholic with titular incumbent biography links
Cities in ancient Egypt Catholic titular sees in Africa Ruins in Egypt Former populated places in Egypt Populated places in Gharbia Governorate Villages in Egypt

History

Ecclesiastical history

Titular see

See also

References

External links