Thyateira (also
Thyatira) is the ancient name of the modern
TurkishTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
city of
AkhisarAkhisar is a county district and its town center in Manisa Province in the Aegean region of Western Turkey...
("white castle"). The
TurkishTurkish is spoken as a first language by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other...
equivalent of
Thyateira is
Tepe Mezarligi. It lies in the far west of Turkey, south of Istanbul and almost due east of Athens. It is about from the Mediterranean.
In classical times, Thyatira stood on the border between
LydiaLydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian....
and
MysiaMysia was a region in the northwest of ancient Asia Minor or Anatolia . It was located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. It was bounded by Bithynia on the east, Phrygia on the southeast, Lydia on the south, Aeolis on the southwest, Troad on the west and by the Propontis on the north...
. It was famous for its dyeing and was a center of the
indigoIndigo dye is an organic compound with a distinctive blue color . Historically, indigo was extracted from plants, and this process was important economically because blue dyes were once rare. Nearly all indigo produced today - several thousand tons each year - is synthetic...
trade.
Thyateira (also
Thyatira) is the ancient name of the modern
TurkishTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
city of
AkhisarAkhisar is a county district and its town center in Manisa Province in the Aegean region of Western Turkey...
("white castle"). The
TurkishTurkish is spoken as a first language by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other...
equivalent of
Thyateira is
Tepe Mezarligi. It lies in the far west of Turkey, south of Istanbul and almost due east of Athens. It is about from the Mediterranean.
History
In classical times, Thyatira stood on the border between
LydiaLydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian....
and
MysiaMysia was a region in the northwest of ancient Asia Minor or Anatolia . It was located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. It was bounded by Bithynia on the east, Phrygia on the southeast, Lydia on the south, Aeolis on the southwest, Troad on the west and by the Propontis on the north...
. It was famous for its dyeing and was a center of the
indigoIndigo dye is an organic compound with a distinctive blue color . Historically, indigo was extracted from plants, and this process was important economically because blue dyes were once rare. Nearly all indigo produced today - several thousand tons each year - is synthetic...
trade. Among the ancient ruins of the city, inscriptions have been found relating to the guild of dyers in the city. Indeed, more guilds are known in Thyatira than any other contemporary city in the Roman province of Asia (inscriptions mention the following: wool-workers, linen-workers, makers of outer garments, dyers, leather-workers, tanners, potters, bakers, slave-dealers and bronze-smiths).
In early Christian times Thyateira was home to a significant Christian Church, mentioned as one of the seven Churches of the Book of Revelation in the
Book of RevelationThe Book of Revelation, also called the Revelation of St. John, the Apocalypse of John, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ, is the last book of the New Testament. It may be shortened to Revelation but never Revelations...
.
The Apostle Paul and
SilasSaint Silas or Saint Silvanus was a leading member of the early Christian community, who later accompanied Paul in some of his missionary journeys....
might have visited Thyateira during Paul's second or third journey, although the evidence is entirely circumstantial. They visited several small unnamed towns in the general vicinity during the second journey. While in
PhilippiPhilippi was a city in eastern Macedonia, in northern ancient Greece, established by Philip II in 356 BC and abandoned in the 14th century after the Ottoman conquest...
, Paul and Silas stayed with a woman named
LydiaLydia of Thyatira was one of the first recorded converts to Christianity in Europe.The Acts of the Apostles describes her as follows:The name, "Lydia", meaning "the Lydian woman", by which she was known indicates that she was from Lydia in Asia Minor...
from Thyateira, who continued to help them even after they were jailed and released.
In 366, a
battleThe Battle of Thyatira was fought in 366 at Thyatira, Phrygia , between the army of the Roman Emperor Valens and the army of the usurper Procopius, led by his general Gomoarius....
fought near Thyateira saw the army of
Roman emperorThe Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin titles such as imperator , augustus, caesar and princeps were all associated with it...
ValensFlavius Julius Valens was Roman Emperor , after he was given the Eastern part of the empire by his brother Valentinian I...
defeat the
Roman usurperUsurpers are individuals or groups of individuals who obtain and maintain the power or rights of another by force and without legal authority. Usurpers were a common feature of the late Roman Empire, especially from the crisis of the third century onwards, when political instability became the...
ProcopiusProcopius , was a Roman usurper against Valentinian I, and member of the Constantinian dynasty.According to Ammianus Marcellinus, Procopius was a native of Cilicia. On his mother's side, Procopius was cousin of Emperor Julian....
.
In 1922 the
Patriarch of Constantinople-Current Ecumenical Patriarch:The current Ecumenical Patriarch is His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople.-General Introduction:...
appointed an
ExarchIn the Byzantine Empire, an exarch, from , was governor with extended authority of a province at some remove from the capital Constantinople...
for Western and Central Europe with the title
Archbishop of Thyateira. The current Archbishop of Thyateira since 1988 is Gregorios Theocharous. The Archbishop of Thyateira resides in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
and has pastoral responsibility for the
Greek Orthodox ChurchThe Orthodox Church, also officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to in English speaking countries as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the world's second largest Christian communion, estimated to number 225 million members...
in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
.
Thyatira is also the name of a
titular seeA titular see in the Roman Catholic Church is a Diocese or Archdiocese that now exists in title only.By definition a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop the tradition of the Catholic Church is that he be ordained for a specific place...
in the
Roman Catholic churchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
.
See also