Rhaphanaea
Encyclopedia
Rhaphanaea is a Catholic titular see
. The original diocese was in Syria Secunda, a suffragan of Apamea
.
Rhaphanaea is mentioned in ancient times only by Josephus
, who says that in that vicinity there was a river which flowed six days and ceased on the seventh, probably an intermittent spring now called Fououar ed-Deir, near Rafanieh, a village of the vilayet of Alep in the valley of the Oronte. The ancient name was preserved. At the time of Ptolemy
, the Third Legion (Gallica) was stationed there.
Hierocles
and Georgius Cyprius mention it among the towns of Syria Secunda. The crusaders passed through it at the end of 1099; it was taken by Baldwin I and was given to the Count of Tripoli. It was then known as Rafania.
The see is mentioned as late as the tenth century in the Notitia episcopatuum of Antioch
.
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 bishop", "titular metropolitan", or "titular archbishop"....
. The original diocese was in Syria Secunda, a suffragan of Apamea
Apamea
Apamea or Apameia is the name of several Hellenistic cities in western Asia, after Apama, the wife of Seleucus I Nicator:*Apamea , on the Tigris near the Euphrates, precise location unknown, now in Iraq...
.
Rhaphanaea is mentioned in ancient times only by Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
, who says that in that vicinity there was a river which flowed six days and ceased on the seventh, probably an intermittent spring now called Fououar ed-Deir, near Rafanieh, a village of the vilayet of Alep in the valley of the Oronte. The ancient name was preserved. At the time of Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
, the Third Legion (Gallica) was stationed there.
Hierocles
Hierocles (author of Synecdemus)
Hierocles or Hierokles was a Byzantine geographer of the sixth century and the attributed author of the Synecdemus or Synekdemos, which contains a table of administrative divisions of the Byzantine Empire and lists of the cities of each...
and Georgius Cyprius mention it among the towns of Syria Secunda. The crusaders passed through it at the end of 1099; it was taken by Baldwin I and was given to the Count of Tripoli. It was then known as Rafania.
Bishops
The only bishops of Rhaphanaea known are:- Bassianus, present at the Council of NicæaFirst Council of NicaeaThe First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325...
, 325; - Gerontius at Philippopolis, 344;
- Basil at Constantinople, 381;
- Lampadius at Chalcedon, 451;
- Zoilus about 518;
- Nonnus, 536.
The see is mentioned as late as the tenth century in the Notitia episcopatuum of Antioch
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...
.