MOPSUESTIA

City of the second province of Cilicia, on the Pyramos River, at present-day Misis. Its name means hearth (or shrine) of Mopsos, a legendary seer who was believed to have been its founder. It was an episcopal see early in the 4th century, suffragan of Anazarbos, under the patriarch of Antioch. Its most famous bishop was theodore of mopsuestia (392–428), outstanding representative of the Antiochene school of theology and exegesis, who was condemned for heresy 125 years after his death by the Council of constantinople ii (553). On orders of the emperor Justinian, a provincial synod had been held at Mopsuestia on June 17, 550, at which the oldest of the clergy and laity declared under oath that in their lifetime Theodore's name had always been replaced on the diptychs of the church by the name Cyril, whom they under-stood to be cyril of alexandria (Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, 9:274–289; Histoire des conciles d'après les documents originaux, 3.1:38–40). Mopsuestia became a metropolitan see in 879; from 1079 to 1224 (when it was known as Mamistra) it had Latin archbishops; it is now a titular archbishopric.

Bibliography: p. camelot, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 7:596. m. le quien, Oriens Christianus, 3 v. (Paris 1740; repr. Graz 1958) 2:889–894; 3:1197–1200. w. ruge, Paulys Realenzyklopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, ed. g. wissowa et al. 16.1 (1933) 243–250. v. schultze, Altchristliche Städte und Landschaften, v. 2.2 (Gütersloh 1926) 305–315.

[f. a. sullivan]