Thynias

Thynias

A titular see, suffragan of Nicomedia, in Bithynia Prima. It is an island situated in the Black Sea, mentioned by all ancient geographers, and which was only 1421 yards wide. Its original name was Apollonia, because it had a temple to the god Apollo. It also bore the name of Daphne, whence came the name Daphnusia, almost as ancient as that of Apollonia, and which is the only one met with in the "Notitiæ episcopatuum". Its name of Thynias is derived from the Thynii, a people of Thracian origin, who occupied all the coast of Bithynia. Le Quien (Oriens Christ., I, 629) mentions three bishops of Daphnusia: St. Sabas, venerated on 1 May; Leo, present at the Eighth Ecumenical Council of 878. One John was exiled to Daphnusia and martyred under Copronymus; his feast is observed on 28 November. In the legendary "Vita" of St. Andrew the Apostle (P. G., CXX, 221) it is said that the relics of Sts. Zoticus, Anicetus, and Photius were preserved in the island. The Diocese of Daphnusia is first mentioned in the "Notitia episcopatuum" of Leo the Wise about 900 (Gelzer, "Ungedruckte...Texte der Notitiæ episcopatuum", 553), then in that of Constantine Porphyrogenitus about 940 ("Georgii Cyprii Descriptio orbis romani", ed. Gelzer, 65), and finally in "Notitia 13" of Parthey in the thirteenth century (Hierocles Synecdemus, 247). In 1261 the Latin fleet was engaged in the siege of the island when the Greek Emperor of Nicæa, Michael VIII Palæologus, captured Constantinople and thus put an end to the Latin Empire. The island of Daphnusia is now called Kefken or Kerpe-Adasi, and lies west of the mouth of the Sangarius in the caza of Chile and the vilayet of Constantinople.

S. VAILHÉ