Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/97

 NICOPOLIS

71

NICOSIA

The Latin mission of Bulgaria, subject during the six- teenth century to the Archbishops of Antivari, after- wards received Franciscan missionaries from Bosnia, and in 1624 formed an independent province called " eustodia Bulgariio ". In 1763 it was confided to the Baptistines of Genoa and in 17S1, to the Passionists who have no canonical residences in the country, sim- ply parishes. One of them is usually appointed Bishop of Nicopolis. The Franciscan bishops for- merly resided at Tchiprovetz, destroyed by the Turks in 16S8, but after the war and the pestilence of 1812, the bishop established himself at Cioplea, a Catholic village which the Bulgarians had just founded near Bucharest and where his successors resided until 1883, when the Holy See created the Archbishopric of Bu- charest. The Bishop of Nicopolis, ceasing then to be apostolic administrator of Wallachia, chose Roust- chouk as his residence and still lives there. In the diocese there are 13,000 Catholics; 24 priests, 5 of whom are seculars; 17 Passionists and 2 Assumption- ists; 15 churches, and 3 chapels. The Assumptionists have a school at Varna, the Oblates of the Assumption a boarding-school in the same city, and the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion a boarding-school at Roustchouk.

Plolemy, ed. MfJLLER, I (Paris), 481; Le Roulx, La France en Orient au XIV' siecle. I (Paris. 1886), 211-99; Bchos d'Orient, VII (Paris). 207-9; Missiones catholicce (Rome, 1907).

S. Vailh£.

Nicopolis, a titular see and metropolis in ancient Epirus. Augustus founded the city (b. c. 31) on a promontory in the Gulf of Ambracia, in commemora- tion of his victory over Anthony and Cleopatra at Actium. At Nicopolis the emperor instituted the famous quinquennial Actian games in honour of Apollo. The city was peopled chiefly by settlers from the neighbouring municipia, of which it was the head (Strabo III, xiii, 3; VII, vii, 6; X, ii, 2). According to Pliny the Elder (IV, 2) it was a free city. St. Paul intended going there (Tit., iii, 12) and it is possible that even then it numbered .some Christians among its population; Origen sojourned there for a while (Eusebius, "Hist, eccl.", VI, 16). Laid waste by the Goths at the beginning of the fifth century (Procopius, "Bell, goth.", IV, 22), restored by Justinian (Idem, " De vEdificiis", IV, 2), in the sixth century it was still the capital of Epirus (Hierocles, "Synecdemus", ed. Burchhardt, 6.51, 4). The province of ancient Epirus of which Nicopolis was the metropolis, constituted a portion of the western patriarchate, directly subject to the jurisdiction of the pope; but, about 732, Leo the Isaurian incorporated it into the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Of the eleven metropolitans men- tioned by Le Quien (Oriens christianus, II, 133-38) the most celebrated was Alcison who, early in the sixth century, opposed the Monophysite policy of Emperor Anastasius. The last known of these bish- ops was Anastasius, who attended the fficumenical Council in 787, and soon afterwards, owing to the decadence into which Nicopolis fell, the metropolitan see was transferred to Naupactus which subsequently figured in the Notitise episcopatuum. Quite exten- sive ruins of Nicopolis are found three miles to the north of Prevesa and are called Palaio-Prevesa.

Smith, Diet. Greek and Roman Geography, II (London, 1870), 426; Leake, Northern Greece, I, 185; Wolfe, Journal of Geo- graphical Society, III, 92 sq.

S. VailhS.

Nicosia, a city of the Province of Catania, in Sicily, situated at a height of about 2800 feet above the level of the sea. In its neighbourhood are salt mines and sulphur springs. The town is believed to stand on the site of the ancient Otterbita, which was destroyed by the Arabs. It has a fine cathedral, with a magnificent portal and paintings by Velasquez. Santa Maria Maggiore, also, is a beautiful church. The episcopal see was erected in 1818, its first prelate being Mgr Cajetan M. Averna. Nicosia was the birthplace of

the Blessed Felix of Nicosia, a Capuchin lay brother. Within the diocese is the ancient city of Triona, which was an episcopal see from 1087 to 1090. Nicosia is a suffragan of Messina, from the territory of which that of Nicosia was taken; it has 23 parishes, with 60,250 inhabitants, 4 religious houses of men, and 5 of women, and 3 schools for girls.

Cappelletti, Le Chiese d'ltalia, XXI (Venice. 1857).

IJ. Benigni.

Nicosia, Titular Archdiocese of, in the Province of Cyprus. It is now agreed (Oberhuramer, "Aus Cvpern" in "Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fiir Erd- kunde", 1890, 212-14), that Ledra, Leucotheon, Leucopolis, Leucosia, and Nicosia are the same city, at least the same episcopal see. Ledra is first men- tioned by Sozomen (H. E., I, 11) in connexion with its bishop, St. Triphyllius, who lived under Constantine and whom St. Jerome (De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis), pronounced the most eloquent of his time. Mention is made also of one of his disciples, St. Diomedes, ven- erated on 28 October. Under the name of Leucosia the city appears for the first time in the sixth century, in the "Synecdemus" of Hierocles (ed. Burckhardt, 707-8). It was certainly subsequent to the eighth century that Leucosia or Nicosia replaced Constantia as the metropolis of Cyprus, for at the CEcumenical Council of 787 one Constantine signed as Bishop of Con- stantia; in any case at the conquest of the island in 1191 by Richard Cceur de Lion Nicosia was the capi- tal. At that time Cyprus was sold to the Templars who established themselves in the castle of Nicosia, but not being able to overcome the hostility of the people of the city, massacred the majority of the inhabitants and sold Cyprus to Guy de Lusignan, who founded a dynasty there, of which there were fifteen titulars, and did much towards the prosperity of the capital. Nicosia was then made a Latin metropolitan see with three suffragans, Paphos, Limassol, and Fa- magusta. The Greeks who had previously had as many as fourteen titulars were obliged to be content with four bishops bearing the same titles as the Latins but residing in different towns. The list of thirty-one Latin archbishops from 1196 to 1502 may be seen in Eubel, "Hierarchia catholica medii a;vi", I, 382; II, 224. Quarrels between Greeks and Latins were frequent and prolonged, especially at Nicosia, where the two councils of 1313-60 ended in bloodshed; but in spite of everything the island prospered. There were many beautiful churches in the possession of the Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, Carmelites, Benedictines, and Carthusians. Other churches be- longed to the Greeks, Armenians, Jacobites, Maro- nites, Nestorians etc. In 1489 Cyprus fell under the dominion of Venice and on 9 November, 1.570, Nicosia fell into the power of the Turks, who committed atro- cious cruelties. Nor was this the last time, for on 9 July, 1821, during the revolt of the Greeks in the Ot- toman Empire, they strangled many of the people of Nicosia, among them the four Greek bishops of the island. Since 4 June, 1878, Cyprus has been under the dominion of England. Previously Nicosia was the residence of the Mutessarif of the sandjak which depended on the vilayet of the Archipelago. Since the Turkish occupation of 1,571 Nicosia has been the permanent residence of the Greek archbishop who governs the autonomous church of Cyprus. The city has 13,000 inhabitants. The Franciscans admin- ister the Catholic mission which is dependent on the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and has a school for boys. The Sisters of St. Joseph have a school for girls

ItOiuN Oru:i cirttiwii TI (Pirn 1740) W7<>; Acta S, 1 1 1 I 1 I I (Brussels,

I Id latins de

II I rl ^ Orthodox CI III I I KB, Cyprus (Athcru IMI) m Greek CuiMBLniiiM. Linmi Nicosienses (Paris, 1894) S. VaILH^.