Emmaus (Diocese)

Ruins of the bascilia in Emmaus.

The Diocese of Emmaus is an ancient and titular Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, located in Emmaus/Nicopolis, Israel,(modern Imwas). The current Bishop is Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo who resides in Nazareth.

History

Byzantine mosaic from Emmaus Nicopolis

Emmaus was very early associated with early Christianity, mentioned in 1 Maccabees[1]Sozomen[2] and Eusebius[3] and in Book of Luke 24:13-35, of the New Testament.

Being a small town only 7½ miles from Jerusalem the village of Emmaus was not initially a Bishopric,[4] but rather part of the Bishopric of Jerusalem,[5]

In 131 CE, Christian scholar and writer Julius Africanus of Jerusalem, headed an embassy to Rome and had an interview with the Roman emperor Elagabalus on behalf of Emmaus. Soon after it was refounded to become a "city" (πόλις), which quickly became famous, and was given the qualification of 'Nicopolis'.[6]

Eusebius a century latter writes

"Emmaus, whence was Cleopas who is mentioned by the Evangelist Luke. Today it is Nicopolis, a famous city of Palestine."[7]

Jerome described how the towns congregation "consecrated the house of Cleopas as a church"[8]

Emmaus Nicopolis on Madaba map.
Emmaus, early 20th Century.

The bishopric of Emmaus was mentioned by St. Jerome,[9] Hesychius of Jerusalem,[10] Theophanes the Confessor,[11] Sozomen,[12] and Theodosius,[13]

In 222 CE, a basilica was erected there, which was rebuilt first by the Byzantines and later modified by the Crusaders.[14] This Diocese, however, must not have been of significance, being represented at only one of the first four councils[15] nor mentioned by Michel Le Quien[16] but was in the notita. ecclesistica.[17]

The ancient bishopric ended when the Islamic armies entered the city. At the time of the Muslim conquest of Palestine, the main encampment of the Arab army was established in Emmaus, when a plague struck, killing as many as 25000 of in the army.

In the 7th century both Willibald of Eichstätt[18] and Hugeburc von Heidenheim, in her The Life of St. Willibald both describe the town church and holy well.

The church building was one of 30,000 Christian buildings destroyed in 1009AD by al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the Fatamid caliph of Egypt.

In the 12th century William of Tyre, described the abundance of water and fodder in the area around the town, and Daniel Kievsky wrote of the site... but now all is destroyed by the pagans and the village of Emmaus in empty. John Phocas (ca.1185) also described the town.

The Bishopric was re-established in 1099 when the army of the First Crusade, arrived in the town. But came under the rule of the Ottoman empire in the early 16th century and, the church built by the Crusaders converted into a mosque.

In 1930, the Carmelite Order built a monastery, the House of Peace, on a tract of land purchased in the town in 1878. and three years latter it was established as a titular See in the Roman Catholic Church.

Known bishops

Adam Naruszewicz.
Kajetan Soltyk.

Ancient Diocese

Titular Catholic See

Church Buildings

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1 Maccabees 3:55-4:22
  2. ↑ Sozomen Lib 5.c.xxi.
  3. ↑ Chron Ann 2237.
  4. ↑ Joseph Bingham,Origines Ecclesiasticae; Or the Antiquities of the Christian, Volume 3 (Straker, 1843 ) p66.
  5. ↑ Joseph Bingham,Origines Ecclesiasticae; Or the Antiquities of the Christian, Volume 3 (Straker, 1843 ), p16.
  6. ↑ William Adler, 'The Kingdom of Edessa and the Creation of a Christian Aristocracy,' in Natalie B. Dohrmann, Annette Yoshiko Reed (eds.),Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire: The Poetics of Power in Late Antiquity, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013 pp.43-61 p.58.
  7. ↑ Eusebius, "Onomasticon," 90:15-17, a text written in 290-325 A.D. , G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville, trans., Jerusalem, 2003
  8. ↑ Pringle, Denys (1993). The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A-K (excluding Acre and Jerusalem). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0 521 39036 2. p53
  9. ↑ Letter 108, PL XXII, 833 and other texts
  10. ↑ Quaestiones », PG XCIII, 1444
  11. ↑ "Chronografia", PG CVIII, 160
  12. ↑ "Ecclesiastical History", PG LXVII, 180
  13. ↑ Theodosius, "De situ Terrae sanctae", 139.
  14. ↑ Sharon, 1997, p. 80
  15. ↑ The Canons of the First Four General Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon (Clarendon Press, 1892)
  16. ↑ Michel Le Quien ((O.P.)), Imprimerie Royale (París), Oriens christianus(ex Typographia Regia, 1740 ).
  17. ↑ Joseph Bingham, Origines Ecclesiasticae; Or the Antiquities of the Christian ..., Volume 3 (Straker, 1843 ) p16.
  18. ↑ Thiede, Carsten Peter; D'Ancona, Matthew (2005). The Emmaus Mystery: Discovering Evidence for the Risen Christ. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 9780826467973. p59.
  19. ↑ Carsten Peter Thiede,The Emmaus Mystery: Discovering Evidence for the Risen Christ (A&C Black, 2006) p57.
  20. ↑ Le Petit Episcopologe, Issue 136, Number 12,162
  21. ↑ Emmaüs at Catholic heirachy.org.
  22. ↑ Seetheholyland.net, editor: Pat McCarthy

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