Synnada () was an ancient town of Phrygia Salutaris in Asia Minor. Its site is now occupied by the modern Turkey town of Şuhut, in Afyonkarahisar Province.
Situation
Synnada was situated in the south-eastern part of eastern
Phrygia, or
Parorea, thus named because it extended to the foot of the mountains of
Pisidia, at the extremity of a plain about 60 stadia in length, and covered with opium plantations.
History
Synnada is said to have been founded by
Acamas who went to Phrygia after the
Trojan War and took some
colonists.
Classical Age
It enters written history when the
Ancient Rome consul Gnaeus Manlius Vulso passed through that city on his expeditions against the
(189 BCE).
[Livy xxxviii. 15, xlv. 34.] It was assigned to the kingdom of the
Attalids and when that kingdom passed to Rome in 133 BC, it became part of the province of Asia, except on two occasions during the last century of the
Roman Republic when it was temporarily attached to
Cilicia. In
Strabo's time it was still a small town,
[Strab. xii.] but when Pliny wrote it was an important place, being the
conventus for the whole of the surrounding country.
[Plin. H.N., v. 29] Cicero mentions that he passed through Synnada on his way from
Ephesus to
Cilicia.
[Cic. ad Att. v. 20; comp. ad Fam. iii. 8. xv. 4] The city was celebrated throughout the Roman Empire on account of the trade in a beautiful kind of
marble, which came from nearby quarries and was commonly called Synnadic marble, though it came properly from a place in the neighborhood,
Docimia, whence it was more correctly called
Docimites lapis. This marble was of a light color, interspersed with purple spots and veins.
[Strab. l. c.; Plin. xxxv. 1; Stat. Silv. i. 5. 36; Comp. Stephanus of Byzantium s. v.; Ptolemy v. 2. § 24; Martial, ix. 76; Symmach. ii. 246.] On its coins, which disappear after the reign of
Gallienus, its inhabitants call themselves
Dorians and
Ionians. Under
Diocletian at the time of the creation of Phrygia Pacatiana, Synnada, at the intersection of two great roads, became the
metropolis (capital). Under
Ottoman Empire rule it became the city of Schifout Kassaba in the vilayet of Bursa.
Ecclesiastical history
Christianity was introduced at an early date into Synnada. The
Martyrologium Hieronymianum mentions the martyrs Trophimus and Dorymedon.
[ Acta Sanctorum, VI September, 9 sq.] A
reliquary of Tromphimus in the form of a
sarcophagus with his bones was discovered here and transported to the
Bursa museum; it may date to the 3rd century.
[Mendel, "Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique", XXXIII (1909), 342 sq.] Eusebius of Caesarea speaks of its pious bishop Atticus who entrusted to the layman Theodore the duty of instructing the Christians.
[ Church History, VI, 19.]
About 230-235 a council on the rebaptizing of heretics was held there.[Eusebius, Church History, VII, 7.] St. Agapitus, mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on 24 March as Bishop of Synnada, belonged to Synaus.
For a list of other bishops see Le Quien, Oriens christianus, I, 827. Mention must be made of:
-
Procopius (321); Cyriacus, friend of St. John Chrysostom
-
Theodosius and his competitor Agapetus, at first a Macedonian heretic
-
Severus (431) Attended Council of Ephesus
-
Marinianus (448-51)
-
Theogenes (536)
-
Severus (553)
-
St. Pausicacus, during the reign of Emperor Maurice, honoured by the Greek Church on 13 May
-
Cosmas, 680
-
John, adversary of the iconoclasm in the time of Patriarch St. Germanus
-
St. Michael, honoured by the Latin and Greek churches 23 May, died 23 May, 826, in exile for his zeal in defending the worship of images
-
Peter under Patriarch Photius
-
John under Photius
-
Pantaleon under Leo the Wise
-
Leo under Basil II
-
Nicetas in 1082
-
Georgios at the Council of St. Sophia, about 1450, if one can believe the apocryphal Acts of this council, which perhaps never occurred.
The last Bishop of Synnada spoken of in the documents, without mentioning his name, probably lived under John Cantacuzenus (see "Cantacuz. Hist.", III, 73) and probably never lived at Synnada on account of the Turkish conquest.
St. Constantine, a converted Jew of Synnada, lived in the 10th century; he became a monk, and is honoured by the Greek Church 26 December.
In 1385 the see was committed for the Greek Church to the Metropolitan of Philadelphia. The metropolitan see of Synnada continues to be included in the list of recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. In 1963, it was assigned to Marcel-François Lefebvre, who later became a traditionalist Catholic founding the Society of St. Pius X to preserve the Latin Mass. Since the Second Vatican Council no new appointments have been made to this eastern titular see.[ Synnada in Phrygia at catholic-hierarchy.org]
Sources
-
Louis Robert, Lettres d'un évêque de Synnada (Paris, 1962).
