Mocissus

Mocissus

A titular metropolitan see of Cappadocia. Procopius (De ædif., V, iv) informs us that this fortified site, in north-western Cappadocia, was constituted metropolis of Cappadocia Tertia by Justinian, when he divided that province into three parts. The emperor gave it the name of Justinianopolis. Nothing is known of its history, and its name should perhaps be written Mocessus. There is no doubt that the site of Mocissus, or Mocessus, is that occupied by the modern town of Kir-Sheir, chief town of a sanjak in the vilayet of Angora, which possesses 8000 inhabitants, most of them Mussulmans. In the neighbourhood of Kir-Sheir there are some important ancient ruins. This metropolis figures in the "Notitiæ episcopatuum" until the twelfth or thirteenth century. Only a few of its titulars are known: the earliest, Peter, attended the Council of Constantinople (536); the last, whose name is not known, was a Catholic, and was consecrated after the Council of Florence by Patriarch Metrophanes of Constantinople.

LE QUIEN, Oriens christ., I, 407; SMITH, Dict. of Greek and Roman Geog., s. v.; RAMSAY, Asia Minor, 300.

S. PÉTRIDÈS.