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 term is used to signify a diocese that no longer functionally exists, often because the diocese once flourished but the territory was conquered for Islam by jihad (from the seventh century forward; the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, for example, Constantinople being conquered by the Turks in 1453 AD, and now called by them "Istanbul"), or because of a schism. The Greek-Turkish population exchange of 1923 also contributed to titular bishoprics. Not all titular sees came about in this way, such as the see of Maximianoupolis which was destroyed along with the town that shared its name by the Bulgarians under Emperor Kaloyan in 1207; the town and the see were under the control of the Latin Empire which took Constantinople during the 4th Crusade in 1204.

Titular sees are also used to avoid causing offense or confusion when a bishop of one denomination serves a place which is also the see of a bishop of a different denomination.