Archdiocese of Nubia

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The Holy Archdiocese of Nubia and All Sudan is a diocese in northern Africa under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa.

History

8th-century Nubian fragment featuring Saint Anna in Faras Cathedral.

Christianity in Nubia may have already arrived during the Apostolic Age, when Saint Philip baptized Saint Aetius the Eunuch, an official of Queen Amanitore of Kush (1 BC–50 AD), modern Sudan. Nubia was a very rich region between the first cataract of the River Nile in Syene (today Aswan in Egypt) and where the Blue and White Niles converged into the River Nile (today Khartoum, Sudan). This condition favored the region to become the seat of strong civilizations such as the Kermans and the Kushites. It is also recorded that Nubia was subjected to Saint Melyos' preaching even before the end of the 1st century. This being said, it seems that Christianity still didn't grow at that place until some centuries later.

In the mid-4th century, the Kingdom of Kush started a war against the Kingdom of Aksum, which led to the victory of the latter. The sacking of Kush weakened Nubia, and the Pagan religion started to gradually fade out of existence over Christianity. Three kingdoms succeeded Kush: Nobatia in the north, Makuria in the middle and Alodia in the south, all of which were officially Christians by the 6th century.

By the second half of the 4th century, some Nubian cities were already dioceses of the Alexandrian Church under Saint Athanasius. In the 6th century, Saint Justinian made Nubia a stronghold of Christianity, building many churches in the area. It seems that the seat of the Archdiocese of Nubia was the Cathedral of Faras in Nobatia (later, Makuria conquered this kingdom), which was rediscovered in the 1960s, revealing astounding frescoes commissioned by Saint Justinian. Unfortunately, the name of the Orthodox archbishops of Nubia is not known.

The three kingdoms were affected by the Islamic invasion in c. 640, being subjected to a peace treaty between both parties which halted the expansion of Islamism in that area. This allowed Orthodoxy to survive for many more years in Nubia, while in Egypt large taxes were applied to the Christian population. Orthodoxy declined in 719, when the Nubian Church officially converted to Miaphysism, whose leaders were then much more powerful than the Patriarchate of Alexandria. Over the next centuries, the influx of Muslim traders introduced Islam to Nubia and it gradually supplanted Christianity. By the end of the 14th century, most cathedrals of Nubia were already converted into mosques.

The modern Archdiocese of Nubia was founded in 1918 during the British rule of Sudan. Its first archbishop was the future Patriarch Nicholas V. Under Abp. Dionysios, the bishopric was renamed Archdiocese of Khartoum and All Sudan, but received its original name under Abp. Narcissus.

Ruling Bishops

(vacant)

  • Arsenios (Kakoyiannis) 1931–1937

(gained territory from the merged Archdiocese of Ptolemais)

(lost territory to reestablish the Archdiocese of Ptolemais)

  • Emmanuel (Kiagias) 2006-2013
  • Narcissus (Gamo) 2013–2015
  • Sabbas (Heimonetos) 2015–Present

Source

External Links