Helenopolis

Coordinates: 40°43′24″N 29°30′08″E / 40.72339°N 29.50224°E / 40.72339; 29.50224

This article is about Helenopolis in Bithynia. There was also a Helenopolis in Palestine and a Helenopolis in Lydia.

Helenopolis was an ancient Roman town in Bithynia, Asia Minor. It has been identified with the modern village of Hersek, in the district of Altınova, Yalova Province.

History

On the southern side of the Gulf of Astacus was a place known as Drepana or Drepanon, where about 258 St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, was born. Near it were some famous mineral springs. These mineral springs might be those of Termal near Yalova. In 318, Constantine gave the place the name Helenopolis, and built there a church in honour of the martyr St. Lucian; it soon grew in importance, and Constantine lived there very often towards the end of his life.

Justinian built there an aqueduct, baths, and other monuments. It does not seem ever to have grown, and it was slightingly called Eleinou Polis, "the wretched town".

Ecclesiastical history

Helenopolis was suffragan of Prusa.

Lequien^[1] mentions nine of its bishops. Macrinus, the first, is said to have been at the Council of Nicaea (325), but his name is not given in the authentic lists of the members of the council. About 400, the church of Helenopolis was governed by Palladius of Galatia, the friend and defender of John Chrysostom, and author of the Historia Lausiaca. The last known bishop assisted at the Photian Council in Constantinople (879). Helenopolis occurs in the Notitiae Episcopatuum until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Helenopolis is a Catholic titular see (Italian Elenopoli di Bitinia).

Notes

1. ^ Oriens Christianus, I, 623.

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia source
• Catholic Hierarchy page

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.