Sasima

Sasima is a Roman Catholic titular see in the former Roman province of Cappadocia.

History

Sasima is mentioned in only three non-religious documents: "Itiner. Anton.", 144; "Itiner. Hiersol.", 577; Hierocles, 700, 6. The very small town is known for being the first see of St. Gregory of Nazianzus who was appointed to it by his friend St. Basil as an aspect of Basil's conflict with Anthimus. Gregory was there only briefly, if at all. Anthimus, bishop of Tyana, had claimed status as an archbishop and jurisdiction over Sasima after the Emperor Valens divided Cappadocia into two parts. Anthimus appointed a competing claimant bishop for Sasima to whom Gregory effectively ceded the town. All the Greek Notitiæ episcopatuum consider Sasima subject to Cappadocia Secunda, while the catalogue of the Roman Curia places it under Cappadocia Prima, i.e., as a suffragan of the archbishopric of Cæsarea.

Ambrose of Sasima signed the letter of the bishops of the province to Byzantine Emperor Leo I the Thracian in 458. About the same time Eleusius appears as an adversary of the Council of Chalcedon.

Towards 1143 Clement was condemned as a Bogomile. The "Notitiæ" mention the see until the following century.

Sasima is the modern Turkish village of Zamzama, a little to the north of Yer Hissar, in the Ottoman vilayet of Koniah, where a few inscriptions and rock tombs are to be found.

Source

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.  [1]