Seleucia Pieria - Church History

Church History

Paul of Tarsus and Saint Barnabas sailed from this port on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:4). The city was Christianized early. The oldest bishop known is Zenobius, present at the Council of Nicaea in 325. Other known bishops include Eusebius, an Arian, and Bizus in the fourth century, with twelve others cited by Le Quien (Oriens Christianus, II, 777-780). In the sixth century the Notitia Episcopatuum of Antioch, gives Seleucia Pieria as an autocephalous archbishopric, suffragan of Antioch (Echos d'Orient, X 144); the diocese existed until the tenth century, and its boundaries are known (Echos d'Orient, X, 97). For some Roman Catholic titularies see Eubel, Hierarchia catholica medii aevi, I, 468.

Seleucia Pieria was a diocese of the Syriac Orthodox Church in the eighth and ninth centuries, three of whose bishops are known. The last-known Syriac Orthodox bishop of Seleucia, Ahron (847/874), is mentioned in the lists of Michael the Syrian.

The city is still a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church, Seleuciensis Pierius; the seat is vacant following the death of the last bishop in 1980.