A titular see in Africa Proconsularis, suffragan of Carthage. Thuburbo Minus is mentioned in the "Itenerar. Antonin.", 44, and the "Tabula Peutinger." It is today Tebourba, a city of 2500 inhabitants, on the left bank of the Medjerda (ancient Bagradas), 21 miles by railway west of Tunis. Situated on a hill, the city proper occupies only a part of the ancient site. It was rebuilt in the fifteenth century by the Andalusian Moors. The Roman amphitheatre was still standing at the end of the seventeenth century, when it was destroyed in order to build a bridge. It was at Thuburbo Minus that the illustrious martyrs St. Perpetua and St. Felicitas with their companions were arrested. The two bishops of this city of whom we know anything are: Victor, present at the Conference of Carthage (411), where he had as his competitor the Donatist Maximinus; and Germanus, who signed (646) the letter of the bishops of the proconsultate to the Patriarch Paul of Constantinople against the Monothelites. Thuburbo Majus, another bishopric of Africa Proconsularis, was a Roman colony the full name of which was Julia Aurelia Commoda Thuburbo Majus. Its many ruins may be seen at Henshir Kasbat, on the banks of the Oued Melian about 34 miles south of Tebourba. It is the country of St. Servus (7 December, Roman Martyrology ), who suffered for the Faith under Genseric and Huneric. Four of its bishops are known: Sedatus, present at the Council of Carthage , 256; Faustus, at the Council of Arles, 314; Cyprianus, at the Conference of Carthage, 411, with his competitor, the Donatist, Rufinus; Benenatus, exiled by Huneric, 484. It is impossible to decide to which of these two cities belongs the great number of martyrs, known especially by the "Martryologium Hieronymianum=94 as having suffered at Thuburbo.

The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.

Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.

No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.

Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912

Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online