Benda, Albania Explained

Benda is an Ancient city and former diocese in present Albania, now a Latin Catholic titular see. The present ethnographic region has taken its name from it. In the XVI-XVII centuries, it was composed of the center Moisit and the villages of Shëngjergj, Shënmëri, Shëngjin, Façesh, Mëner, Bruz, Shënpal, Derje, Kumardh, Xibër, Gur i Bardh, Martanesh, Bastar.[1] Nowadays, it incorporates villages like Bastar, Bulçesh, Mëner i Sipërm, Murriza, Vilëza, Zall-Mëner, and Zall-Dajt - Besh, Selita e Malit, Shëngjin.

History

Benda probably was important enough in the Roman province of Epirus Novus to become a suffragan diocese of its capital Dyrrhachium's Metropolitan Archbishopric, although authors like Michel Lequien, in Oriens christianus, doubt its existence in Antiqiuity, given its total absence from the great synods of the first millennium. Michel Antoine Baudrand's Geographia states (quoted by Farlati) «Benda, urbs Macedoniae in Albania regione, episcopalis sub Archiepiscopo Dyrrhachino, nunc in ruinis jacens sub dominio Turcarum; ejus Episcopus commorabutur in castro Mammoli dicte…» (Benda, a city of Macedonia in the region of Albania, bishopric under the archbishopric of Durrës, now lying in ruins under the Turkish dominion; its bishop lodges in the castle called Mamli...), situating it in Roman Macedonia, near Krujë.

Edmund Bohun (1688): Benda, a City of Albania in Macedonia, which, is a Bishop's See, under the Archbishop of Durazzo, [Dyrrachium]. It now lies in ruins, under the Slavery of the Turks, and the Bishop resides at Mamoli, yet from this place the adjacent Country is call'd Benda, under which Title is included also Sermenica, a small district which lies towards Croia, as I have heard (saith M. Baudrand) from the Archbishop of Durazzo.[2]

Maty, in his "Dictionnaire géographique universel" (1750) writes that: The ruins of the ancient city of Benda, Episcopal see and suffragan of Durrës. They are in Greece, in Albania, towards the gulf of the Drin, and the city of Kruja, in a little Quarter, that they still nowadays call La Benda. The bishop of this city makes his residence in the castle of Mamli.[3]

The see is mentioned in historical sources only from the 14th century, but no longer in its own right, only as 'united' with the Diocese of Stephaniaca (in Epirus, suffragan of Dyrrachium) and soon also with some Diocese of Prisca (which Eubel (op. cit., vol. I, p. 463) believes a copyist error; some identify it with Pristina or Prizren, despite suspicious geographical distance, while L. Petit identifies the see with the village Presa or Press in Albania), due to Ottoman Turkish occupations rendering its situation instable, seeing most Catholics flee the region.

The Kanun of Scanderbeg (Alb. Kanuni i Skënderbeut) was adhered to by the Albanians of northern central Albania, primarily in the regions of Benda, but also Dibra, Kruja, Kurbin, and Martanesh, - that is, the territory that was once part of the principality created by Scanderbeg.[4]

A geographical map published in 1689, shows the diocese comprising a mountainous region in central Albania, bounded by the Latin dioceses of Acrida (Ochrid), Krujë and Chunavia.[5]

At least the union with Stephaniacum last till both disappear in the late 17th century, after 1669 when an archbishop of Durrës was given administration of the see of Benda.

Still in 1640, Archbishop of Durrës, Marco Scura, a Franciscan, describes to Propaganda Fide the see of Benda under his administration (quoted by Farlati): its old cathedral in the 'pagus' (district) Moilitus, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, was ravaged to the ground, the episcopal quarter had no more ministers or faithful; its 20 to 27 parishes, for circa 2.000 Catholic residents, being served by 8 priest.

No residential bishops were recorded.

Titular see

P. Francesco Marino Canti (created titular Bishop of Benda and Stephaniaca by Pope Martin V on 23 November 1418).

It was nominally restored as a Latin titular bishopric in 1760.

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

See also

Sources and external links

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Aleksandër Meksi: "KANUNI ISHTE I KTHJELLËT, NUK LINTE VEND PËR INTERPRETIME" (http://www.voal-online.ch/index.php?mod=article&cat=SHQIPTAR%C3%8BT&article=31425)
  2. Book: Bohun, Edmund . A Geographical Dictionary, Representing the Present and Ancient Names of All the Countries, Provinces, Remarkable Cities ...: And Rivers of the Whole World: Their Distances, Longitudes and Latitudes . 1688 . C. Brome . en.
  3. Web site: Dictionnaire géographique universel, tiré du Dictionaire géographique latin de Baudrand, des meilleures relations des plus fameux voyages, et des plus fideles cartes . 1750 . Maty . Charles .
  4. Book: Robert Elsie . Historical Dictionary of Albania . 2010.
  5. Giacomo Cantelli da Vignola, Albania propria, Rome 1689

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