Castra Martis

Castra Martis (Bulgarian: Кастра Мартис) was a Roman fortified garrison (castra) in Dacia which became a town and bishopric and remains a Latin Catholic titular see.

History

Castra Martis, named after the Roman god of war Mars, on the modern site of Kula (Latin/Italian Cula), in Vidin Province in northwestern Bulgaria, served to protect the road through Vrashka Chuka pass in the western Balkan mountains.

It was important enough in the Roman province of Dacia ripensis to become a suffragan of the provincial capital's Metropolitan Archdiocese of Ratiaria, in the sway of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Its only recorded Suffragan Bishop was Calvus, participant at the Council of Serdica in 343 (called by the Pope, boycotted by most Eastern sees).

In 408, the Huns under Uldin took control of the site during an attack on the Eastern Roman Empire, apparently by treachery.^[1]

Titular see

The diocese was nominally restored in 1933 as Latin Titular bishopric of Castra Martis (Latin) / Castra di Marte (Curiate Italian) / Castromartianus (Latin adjective).

It has had the following incumbents, so far of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank :

Platon Kornyljak (born Ukraine) (1959.04.17 – death 2000.11.01), first as Apostolic Exarch of Germany and Scandinavia of the Ukrainians (Germany etc.) (1959.04.17 – retired 1996.12.16), then on emeritate
Petro Kryk (born Poland) (2000.11.20 – ...), Apostolic Exarch of Germany and Scandinavia of the Ukrainians (Germany), no previous prelature.

Eponymy

Castra Martis Hill on Livingston Island, in the South Shetland Islands, West Antarctica, is named after it.

Notes

^ Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. "The Date of Ammianus Marcellinus' Last Books." The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 76, No. 4 (1955), p. 389

Sources and external links

GCatholic - (former and) Latin titular bishopric

Bibliography

Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 428
Daniele Farlati-Jacopo Coleti, Illyricum Sacrum, vol. VII, Venice 1817, p. 611
Jacques Zeiller, Les origines chrétiennes dans les provinces danubiennes de l'empire romain, Paris 1918, p. 155.

43°53′20″N 22°31′20″E / 43.88889°N 22.52222°E / 43.88889; 22.52222

[1] Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. "The Date of Ammianus Marcellinus' Last Books." The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 76, No. 4 (1955), p. 389