Hephæstus was a town in Roman
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, in the province of
Augustamnica Prima
''Augustamnica'' (Latin) or ''Augoustamnike'' (Greek) was a Roman province of Egypt created during the 5th century and was part of the Diocese of Oriens first and then of the Diocese of Egypt, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 640s.
Some ...
, the eastern part of the Nile Delta.
The name Hephæstus is known only from ecclesiastical sources; its Egyptian name and its site are unknown.
Ecclesiastical history
The original diocese was in Augustamnica Prima, a
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
Pelusium
Pelusium ( Ancient Egyptian: ; cop, /, romanized: , or , romanized: ; grc, Πηλουσιον, Pēlousion; la, Pēlūsium; Arabic: ; Egyptian Arabic: ) was an important city in the eastern extremes of Egypt's Nile Delta, 30 km to ...
.
It is mentioned by
Hierocles and by
George of Cyprus
George of Cyprus ( el, Γεώργιος Κύπριος; Latinized as ''Georgius Cyprius'') was a Byzantine geographer of the early seventh century.
Nothing is known of his life save that he was born at Lapithos in the island of Cyprus. He is kno ...
, as among the thirteen towns of Augustamnica Prima.
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 pro ...
mentions only two bishops: John, who took part in two Councils of Ephesus (
First, 431 and
Second, 449), and Peter, present at the Council of Constantinople in 459.
It remains a Roman Catholic
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 ...
.
Notes
Sources
* The entry cites:
**
Heinrich Gelzer Heinrich Gelzer (1 July 1847, in Berlin – 11 July 1906, in Jena) was a German classical scholar. He wrote also on Armenian mythology. He was the son of the Swiss historian Johann Heinrich Gelzer (1813–1889). He became Professor of classical ...
, ''Georgii Cyprii descriptio orbis romani'' (Leipzig, 1890), 112;
*Smith, ''Dict. Greek and Roman Geogr.'', s. v.
Catholic titular sees in Africa
Roman sites in Egypt
{{Egypt-geo-stub