Skip to content

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Serrae

Free World Class Education
FREE Catholic Classes

Titular metropolitan see in Macedonia, more correctly Serrhae, is called Siris by Herodotus (VIII, 115), Sirae by Titus Livius (XLV, iv). Inscriptions show the official spelling to have been Sirrha or Sirrhae; the form Serrhae prevailed during the Byzantme period (Hierocles, 639, 10; Stephanius Byzantius, s. v.). The city, now called in Turkish "Sérès", is in Eastern Macedonia, about forty-three miles north-east of Salonica in the plain of Strymon, on the last outposts of the mountains which bound it on the north-east. On his return to the Hellespont, Xerxes left some of his sick followers at Serrae, and here also P. Æmilius Paulus, after his victory at Pydna, received a deputation from Perseus. The city possessed great strategic importance under the Byzantine Empire in the wars against the Serviani and Bulgars. It was captured by the latter in 1206 and recaptured by the Emperor John Dukas in 1245. Later the Servian, Kral Stephen Dushan, captured it in turn, was crowned there im 1345, established a Court on the model of that of Byzantium, and married the daughter of Andronicus II. In 1373 it was captured by a Greek apostate in the service of Sultan Murad I. In 1396, while Sigismund of Hungary was preparing to attack the Ottoman Empire, the Sultan Bayazet had his camp at Sérès, where he assembled his Christian allies shortly before the Battle of Nicopolis. Sérès is now the capital of a sanjak in the vilayet of Salonica. It has about 30,000 inhabitants, of whom 13,000 are Turks and the same number Greeks. It carries on a brisk trade in textile and agricultural products. At first Serrae was a suffragan of Thessalonica, remaining so probably until the eighth century, when Eastern Illyricum was removed from Roman jurisdiction and attached to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. It figures in the "Notitiae episcopatuum" as an autocephalous archdiocese as early as the tenth century; at the end of the next century it had become a metropolitan see without suffragans, and such is still its status for the Greeks. Le Quien (Oriens Christ., II, 87) gives a list of fourteen bishops, but a much more complete list is given in Papageorgiou's article cited in the bibliography. The oldest of these bishops is Maximianus or Maximus, present at the Latrocinium of Ephesus (449) and at the Council of Chalcedon (451). A gap intervenes till the end of the tenth century, when Leontius assisted at a council of Constantinople. Among the other titulars was Nicetas, formerly a deacon of St. Sophia, Constantinople, and eventually Metropolitan of Heraclea (Pontus), at the end of the eleventh century. He was a prolific writer [see Krumbacher, "Gesch. der byzant. Litt." (Munich, 1897), 137 sqq., 211 sqq., 215 sqq., 587, etc.]. Under Michael Palaeologus, a metropolitan of Serrae whose name is unknown was among the advocates of union with Rome. In 1491 Manasses became Patriarch of Constantinople under the name of Maximus. Eubel, "Hierarchia catholica medii aevi", I, 473, mentions two Latin metropolitans : Arnulphus in 1225 and Pontius in 1358.

Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.

Prayer of the Day logo
Saint of the Day logo

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Catholic Online Logo

Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.

Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.