Jump to content

Benda, Albania

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by MbretiBasha (talk | contribs) at 14:09, 10 October 2018 (→History). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For namesakes, see Benda

Benda is an Ancient city and former diocese in present Albania, now a Latin Catholic titular see.

History

Benda probably was important enough in the Roman province of Epirus Novus to become a suffragan diocese of its capital Dyrrhachium's Metropolitan Archbishopric, although authors like Michel Lequien, in Oriens christianus, doubt its existence in Antiqiuity, given its total absence from the great synods of the first millennium. Michel Antoine Baudrand's Geographia states (quoted by Farlati) «Benda, urbs Macedoniae in Albania regione, episcopalis sub Archiepiscopo Dyrrhachino, nunc in ruinis jacens sub dominio Turcarum; ejus Episcopus commorabutur in castro Mammoli dicte…», situating it in Roman Macedonia, near Krujë.

The see is mentioned in historical sources only from the 14th century, but no longer in its own right, only as 'united' with the Diocese of Stephaniacum (in Epirus, suffragan of Dyrrachium) and soon also with some Diocese of Prisca (which Eubel (op. cit., vol. I, p. 463) believes a copyist error; some identify it with Pristina or Prizren, despite suspicious geographical distance, while L. Petit identifies the see with the village Presa or Press in Albania), due to Ottoman Turkish occupations rendering its situation instable, seeing most Catholics flee the region.

A geographical map published in 1689, shows the diocese comprising a mountainous region in central Albania, bounded by the Latin dioceses of Acrida (Ochrid), Krujë and Chunavia.[1]

At least the union with Stephaniacum last till both disappear in the late 17th century, after 1669 when an Archbishop of Durrës was given administration of the see of Benda.

Still in 1640, Archbishop of Durrës, Marco Scura, a Franciscan, describes to Propaganda Fide the see of Benda under his administration (quoted by Farlati): its old cathedral in the 'pagus' (district) Moilitus, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, was ravaged to the ground, the episcopal quarter had no more ministers or faithful; its 20 to 27 parishes, for circa 2.000 Catholic residents, being served by 8 priest.

No residential bishops were recorded.

Titular see

It was nominally restored as a Latin titular bishopric in 1760.

It has had the following incumbents, so far all of the fitting lowest (episcopal) rank :

See also

References

  1. ^ Giacomo Cantelli da Vignola, Albania propria, Rome 1689
Bibliography
  • Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 422
  • Daniele Farlati-Jacopo Coleti, Illyricum Sacrum, vol. VII, Venice 1817, pp. 401–405
  • Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. 6, p. 120
  • Louis Petit, lemma 'Benda' in Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. II, New York 1907
  • L. Jadin, lemma 'Benda' in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. VII, 1934, coll. 1051-1052

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Benda,_Albania&oldid=863394046"