- Rhesaena
Rhesaena is a Catholic
titular see . The original diocese was inOsrhoene , asuffragan ofEdessa .Rhesaena (
Resaena : numerous variations of the name appear in ancient authors) was an important town at the northern extremity ofMesopotamia , near the sources of the Chaboras (now theKhabur River . It was on the way fromCarrhæ toNicephorium , about eighty miles fromNisibis and forty fromDara . Nearby,Gordian III fought the Persians in 243, at thebattle of Resaena . It is nowRa's al-'Ayn ,Syria .Its coins show that it was a Roman colony from the time of
Septimus Severus . The "Notitia dignitatum" (ed. Boecking, I, 400) represents it as under the jurisdiction of the governor or Dux of Osrhoene.Hierocles ("Synecdemus ", 714, 3) also locates it in this province but under the name of Theodosiopolis; it had in fact obtained the favour ofTheodosius the Great and taken his name. It was fortified byJustinian . In 1393 it was nearly destroyed byTamerlane 's troops.Bishops
Le Quien (Oriens christianus, II, 979) mentions nine bishops of Rhesaena:*Antiochus, present at the
Council of Nicæa (325);
*Eunomius, who (about 420) forced the Persians to raise the siege of the town;
*John, at theCouncil of Antioch (444);
*Olympius at Chalcedon (451);
*Andrew (about 490);
*Peter, exiled withSevenian (518);
*Ascholius, his successor, aMonophysite ;
*Daniel (550);
*Sebastianus (about 600), a correspondent ofGregory the Great .The see is again mentioned in the tenth century in a Greek "
Notitiæ episcopatuum " of thePatriarchate of Antioch (Vailhé, in "Echos d'Orient", X, 94). Le Quien (ibid., 1329 and 1513) mentions twoJacobite bishops: Scalita, author of a hymn and of homilies, and Theodosius (1035). About a dozen others are known.References
*Revue de l'Orient chrét. VI (1901), 203;
*D'HERBELOT, Bibl. orientale, I, 140; III, 112;
*RITTER. Erdkunde, XI, 375;
*SMITH, Dict. Greek and Roman Geogr., s. v., with bibliography of ancient authors;
*MÜLLER, notes on Ptolemy, ed. DIDOT, I, 1008;
*CHAPOT, La frontière de l'Euphrate de Pompée à la conquête arabe (Paris, 1907). 302.
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