Germia was a city in the late Roman province of Galatia Secunda in Central Anatolia.[1]
History
From the time of Justinian I (527–565), who went there to take the baths, Germia became known as Myriangeloi (Myriads of Angels) because of its celebrated shrine of Michael the Archangel and the Holy Angels.[2][3]
The ruins of the Byzantine shrine are located in the village of Gümüşkonak, formerly known as Yörme, 8 km south of Günyüzü in Eskişehir Province, Turkey,[3] as are the remains of the baths and of an inn that Justinian built.[2]
Episcopal see
In the 6th century, the geographer Hierocles mentioned Germia as a bishopric. By about 650 it was an autonomous archdiocese, a status it maintained in the 9th century and also under the emperors Leo the Wise (886–912), Constantine Porphyrogenitus (913–959), and Alexius I Comnenus (1081–1118). It had become an autocephalous metropolitan see in the time of Michael VIII Palaeologus (1259–1282), Andronicus II (1282–1328) and Andronicus III (1328–1341), but disappeared soon after.[2]
It is now in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees.[1]
References
- ^ a b Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 902
- ^ a b c Siméon Vailhé, "Germia" in Catholic Encyclopedia (New York 19090
- ^ a b Cyril Mango, “The Pilgrimage Centre of St. Michael at Germia” Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 36 (1986): pp. 117-32