Arabissus

Town in ancient Cataonia - Cappadocia

Arabissus or Arabissos (Ancient Greek: Ἀραβισσός), also known as Tripotamos,^[1] was a town in ancient Cataonia, then Cappadocia, and later in the Roman province of Armenia Secunda. The Byzantine Emperor Maurice was born there in 539. A cave of the Seven Sleepers is located in the Eshab-ı Kehf Kulliye.

Location

The town corresponds to present-day Afşin, formerly Yarpuz, in Kahramanmaraş Province, Turkey.^[2]^[1]

Ecclesiastical history

Arabissus was an episcopal see, a suffragan of Melitene.

Its diocesan bishops included Otreius, who was at the First Council of Constantinople in 381, and Adolius at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, Adelphius, who was a signatory of the 458 letter of the bishops of the province of Armenia II to Byzantine Emperor Leo I the Thracian to protest at the murder of Proterius of Alexandria, the writer Leontius, who came later, and Georgius, who was at the Trullan Council of 692. Michael the Syrian mentions several Jacobite Church bishops of Arabissus of the 7th to the 10th centuries.^[3]^[4] Its titular bishops include Stephen Peter Alencastre (1924–1940).

Arabissus is now a titular see of the Catholic Church.^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.
^ Titular Sees ('A')
^ Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 441
^ Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 449-450
^ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 836

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Arabissus". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. The entry cites:
- Le Quien, Oriens Christianus (1740), I, 449-450