Diocese of Antinoe
The Archdiocese of Antinoe is titular diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the Province of Egypt. It was part of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, and the bishopric was based on Antinoë in the Nile Valley. It was also known as Antinoöpolis.
History
Antinoe, was a town in the Roman province of Thebaid I. The town had a high number of martyrs during the Diocletianic Persecution indicating a Christian community in the late 3rd century and early 4th century.The diocese was originally established in the 4th century as a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Ptolemais but was elevated to the rank of a metropolitan see in the 5th century. According to the Commanville, Antinoe eventually had eight suffragan dioceses of its own: Hermopolis, Cuse, Lycopolis, Ipseli, Lesser Apollonopoli, Anteopoli, Panopolis and Erzurum.
The archdiocese disappeared with the Arab conquest of Egypt. However, the existence of two Coptic bishops, Menna in the 8th century and Isaac in the 11th century indicates that a Christian community continued. The Muslims had a particular veneration for Bishop Ammon, who they called Al-Adeb and it seems the Arabic name of the village of Sheykh Abade derives from him.
Today Antinoe is a titular archdiocese; the seat is currently vacant.
List of known bishops
- Talbot
- Lucio
- Ammonium
- Arius
- Macario
- Ammon
- Athanasius
- Teodoro
- Procopius
- Senuzio
- Victor
- Menna
- Isaac
- Valerio Bellati
- Florence MacCarthy
- James Keating
- Giacomo Stella
- John Baptist Scandella
- Ignatius Mark
- Antonio Sabatucci
- Angelo Paino
- Julio Ramón Riveiro y Jacinto.
- Adelrich Benziger,
- Justin Daniel Simonds
- Joseph Emmanuel Descuffi
- Varkey Vithayathil