Ancient town in Roman North Africa
Obba was an Ancient town in
Roman North Africa. It is now a Latin Catholic
titular see.
[1]
Location
Obba was near
Carthage,
[2] in modern
Tunisia, and is placed in the
Roman province of
Africa Proconsularis by the
Annuario Pontificio. Sophrone Pétridès is a lone voice in placing it in the split-off Roman province of
Byzacena,
[3] further south.
According to the Catholic Encyclopaedia, it is the modern
Ebba. (
Abbah Quşūr?)
Pétridès says the town was situated on the highway from Carthage to
Theveste (modern Tebessa), seven miles from Lares (now Lorbeus) and sixteen miles from Altiburus (Henshir Medina).
Werner Huß sees as the most likely location modern Henchir Bou Djaoua or Henchir Merkeb en-Nabi.
[4]
History
Polybius mentions the town, under the name of Abba, as the place
Syphax retreated to in the
Second Punic War (218-201 BC) after
Numidian king
Masinissa and the Romans burned his camp near
Utica,
[5] and
Livy mentions it as where Syphax linked up with a body of 4000 Celtiberian mercenaries raised by Carthage's
Hasdrubal Barca.
[6]
Ecclesiastical history
A diocese was established there around 200 AD and of
Africa and Christian
bishopric, a
suffragan of
Carthage, the
Metropolitan see of the North African
ecclesiastical province, in the papal sway.
Three of its bishops are historically known :
It was suppressed having faded, presumably with the
7th century advent of Islam.
Titular see
The diocese was nominally restored as circa 1890 as Latin
titular bishopric of Obba (Latin = Curiate Italian) / Obben(sis) (Latin adjective).
It has had the following incumbents, albeit with some intervals, mostly of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank, with a single archiepiscopal exception, both secular and regular :
- François-Xavier Corbet,
Spiritans (C.S.Sp.) (French) (1898.07.05 – death 1914.07.25) as only
Apostolic Vicar of
Northern Madagascar (then French
Madagascar) (1898.07.05 – 1913.05.20), (see) restyled first Vicar Apostolic of
Diégo-Suarez (Madagascar) (1913.05.20 – 1914.07.25)
- Léon-Charles-Joseph Girod, C.S.Sp. (French) (1915.01.13 – death 1919.12.13) as Apostolic Vicar of
Loango (then French
Congo(-Brazzaville)) (1915.01.13 – 1919.12.13)
- Domenico Comin,
Salesians (S.D.B.) (Italian) (1920.03.05 – 1963.08.17) as Apostolic Vicar of
Méndez y Gualaquiza (
Ecuador) (1920.03.05 – 1951.04.12), (see) restyled as first Apostolic Vicar of
Méndez (Ecuador) (1951.04.12 – 1963.08.17)
- Joseph Khiamsun Nittayo (1963.09.13 – 1965.12.18) first as
Coadjutor Apostolic Vicar of
Bangkok (
Thailand) (1963.09.13 – 1965.04.29), then succeeding as last Apostolic Vicar of Bangkok (1965.04.29 – 1965.12.18); later (see) promoted first Metropolitan Archbishop of
Bangkok (Thailand) (1965.12.18 – retired 1972.12.18), President of Bishops’ Conference of Thailand (1970 – 1973), died 1998
-
Jaime Lachica Sin (1967.02.10 – 1972.01.15) as
Auxiliary Bishop of
Archdiocese of Jaro (
Philippines) (1967.02.10 – 1972.01.15); later
Titular Archbishop of
Massa Lubrense (1972.01.15 – 1972.10.08) as
Coadjutor Archbishop of Jaro (1972.01.15 – 1972.10.08), succeeding as Metropolitan Archbishop of Jaro (1972.10.08 – 1974.01.21), transferred Metropolitan Archbishop of
Manila (Philippines) (1974.01.21 – retired 2003.09.15), President of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (C.B.C.P.) (1976 – 1981), created
Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria ai Monti (1976.05.24 – death 2005.06.21)
- Erwin Hecht,
Missionary Oblates (O.M.I.) (1972.02.03 – 1974.07.01) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Diocese of Kimberley (
South Africa) (1972.02.03 – 1974.07.01); next succeeded as Bishop of Kimberley (1974.07.01 – retired 2009.12.15), died 2016
- BIOs to ELABORATE
- Alberto Giraldo Jaramillo,
Sulpicians (P.S.S.) (later Archbishop) (1974.08.08 – 1977.04.26)
- Protacio Guevarra Gungon (1977.07.08 – 1983.01.24)
- George Patrick Ziemann (1986.12.23 – 1992.07.14)
- José Eduardo Velásquez Tarazona (1994.03.15 – 2000.07.01)
- Gustavo Rodriguez Vega (later Archbishop) (2001.06.27 – 2008.10.08)
- Titular Archbishop
Joseph William Tobin,
Redemptorists (C.SS.R.) (2010.08.02 – 2012.10.18)
- Rafał Markowski (2013.11.04 – ...),
Auxiliary Bishop of the
Archdiocese of Warszawa
See also
References
-
^ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013,
ISBN
978-88-209-9070-1), p. 943
-
^
"Obba"
Archived 2014-02-22 at the
Wayback Machine
Lewis and Short
- ^
a
b
Sophrone Pétridès, "Obba" in Catholic Encyclopedia (New York 1911)
-
^
Werner Huß (Bamberg), "Abba" in Brill's New Pauly
-
^
Polybius, Histories, 14,6,12; 7,5
-
^
Livy, The History of Rome, 30.7
Sources and external links
- Bibliography
- Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 467
- Stefano Antonio Morcelli, Africa christiana, Volume I, Brescia 1816, p. 248
- J. Mesnage, L'Afrique chrétienne, Paris 1912, p. 63