Henchir-Bladia Explained

Henchir-Bladia is an archaeological site and locality in southern Tunisia. The stone ruins are tentatively associated with Bladia,[1] a civitas of the Roman province of Byzacena during the Roman Empire. It was a Catholic bishopric.

Bladia was the seat of the Diocese of Bladia[2] [3] (Latin: Dioecesis Bladiensis), a home suppressed and titular see of the Roman Catholic Church.[4] that was suffragan to the Archdiocese of Carthage.[5]

History

Very little is known of the ancient town. Two bishops are known from here, The Catholic Potentiometer, who participated in the Council of Carthage (411)[6] and an unnamed Donatist bishop of Bladia. The conference proceedings have not recorded his name.

Today Bladia survives as a titular bishopric;[7] the current titular bishop is Víctor Iván Vargas Galarza, of Cochabamba.

Notes and References

  1. http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/former/t0323.htm Bladia
  2. [Pius Bonifacius Gams]
  3. Stefano Antonio Morcelli, Africa Christiana, Volume I, (Brescia, 1816), pp. 103-104.
  4. J. Mesnage, L'Afrique chrétienne, (Paris, 1912), pp. 183-184.
  5. Auguste Audollent, v. Bladia in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. IX, 1937, coll. 55-56.
  6. Patrologia Latina, vol.XI, col. 1281.
  7. http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/d2b71.html Bladia