1. Ecclesiastical history 1.1. The seat The city of Miletus, by the mouth of the Maeander River, was the seat of the diocese of the province of Caria already by the 4th century. In Late Antiquity the city may have featured an Arian diocese too. An inscription that dates to 538 testifies that by that date Miletus had become an autocephalous archdiocese, a status which it retained during the Middle Byzantine period as well. Possibly in the 12th century, and certainly before 1166, Miletus became a metropolis of the ecclesiastical province of Caria, under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, without any dioceses belonging to it. In 1369, due to the turmoil caused by the Ottoman conquest, the metropolis of Miletus was ceded to the metropolitan of Aphrodisias (Stauropolis). 1.2. The faces In 325 the bishop of Miletus participated in the First Ecumenical Council, at Nicaea. The archbishops of Miletus participated in the (681) and Quinisext (691) councils at Constantinople, in the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787) at Nicaea and to the Fourth Council of Constantinople in 879. One famous archbishop was Saint Nikephoros of Miletus (10th century). Other archbishops are known by their Middle Byzantine seals. The metropolitans of the city participated in the councils of 1166 and 1170 and are further known by documents found in the archives of the monastery of St John the Theologian on the island of Patmos, dating to the 13th century. In the archive of the monastery of Patmos, Miletus is also called Palatia.1 Nilos, who passed away in 1369, is the last prelate to have held the metropolitan throne of Miletus. 2. The seat of Miletus in the notitiae episcopatuum In the the archdiocese of Miletus was ranked 15th-6th (Notitia 12, of the 12th century), out of 34 to 42 archdioceses. As a metropolis, Miletus was ranked 81st to 101st (or 102nd), after its relegation by Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos (1282-1328). |