Rhesaina

(Redirected from Resaena)

Rhesaina (Rhesaena) (Ancient Greek: Ρέσαινα and Ρεσαίνα)[1] or Resina (Ῥέσινα)[2] was a city in the late Roman province of Mesopotamia Secunda and a bishopric that was a suffragan of Dara.[3]

Rhesaina
Rhesaina is located in Syria
Rhesaina
Shown within Syria
LocationSyria
RegionAl-Hasakah Governorate
Coordinates36°51′01″N 40°04′14″E / 36.8503°N 40.0706°E / 36.8503; 40.0706
History
CulturesRoman
Site notes
ConditionRuins
Public accessYes

Rhesaina (Rhesaena, Resaena – numerous variations of the name appear in ancient authors) was an important town at the northern extremity of Mesopotamia, near the sources of the Chaboras (now the Khabur River. It was on the way from Carrhae to Nicephorium, about eighty miles from Nisibis and forty from Dara. Nearby, Gordian III fought the Persians in 243, at the battle of Resaena. It is now Ra's al-'Ayn, Syria.

Its coins show that it was a Roman colony from the time of Septimius Severus. The Notitia Dignitatum (ed. Boecking, I, 400) represents it as under the jurisdiction of the governor or Dux of Osrhoene. Hierocles (Synecdemus, 714, 3) also locates it in this province but under the name of Theodosiopolis (Θεοδοσιούπολις); it had in fact obtained the favour of Theodosius the Great and taken his name. It was fortified by Justinian. In 1393 it was nearly destroyed by Tamerlane's troops.

Bishops

edit

Rhesaina was also the site of a Bishopric. The Diocese of Rhesaina is today a suppressed and titular see of the Roman Catholic Church in the episcopal province of Mesopotamia

Le Quien[4] mentions nine bishops of Rhesaena:

Roman bishops

edit

Middle Ages

edit

The see is again mentioned in the 10th century in a Greek Notitia episcopatuum of the Patriarchate of Antioch (Vailhé, in "Échos d'Orient", X, 94). Le Quien (ibid., 1329 and 1513) mentions two Jacobite bishops: Scalita, author of a hymn and of homilies, and Theodosius (1035). About a dozen others are known.

Titular bishops

edit
  • Joseph-Louis Coudé,(15 Jan 1782 Appointed – 8 Jan 1785)[5]
  • Alexander MacDonell (12 Jan 1819 Appointed – 27 Jan)
  • Antonio Maria de J. Campos Moreno (19 Dec 1834 – 12 Jan 1851)
  • Francis McNeirny (22 Dec 1871 – 12 Oct 1877
  • Tommaso Bichi (16 Dec 1880 – 1901)
  • Domenico Scopelliti (15 Dec 1919 – 16 Apr 1922)
  • Vicente Huarte y San Martín (26 Apr 1922 – 23 Aug 1935)
  • Joseph Gjonali (Gionali) (30 Oct 1935 – 20 Dec 1952)
  • Gerardo Valencia Cano, (24 Mar 1953 – 21 Jan 1972)

References

edit
  1. ^ Claudius Ptolemaeus, Geographia, p.108
  2. ^ Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Resaina
  3. ^ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 958]
  4. ^ Oriens christianus, II, 979.
  5. ^ Rhesaina at catholic-hierarchy.org.
Attribution

36°51′1.08″N 40°4′14.16″E / 36.8503000°N 40.0706000°E / 36.8503000; 40.0706000