Thmuis
THMUIS
A titular see in Augustamnica Prima, lower Egypt, and a suffragan of Pelusium, founded before the beginning of the fourth century in the Delta on the canal east of the Nile River. Herodotus and Ptolemy noted the city as the capital of a nome. In the fourth century it still had its own civil administration, separate from Alexandria. It survived through the Arabian conquest as Al-Mourad, but disappeared in the Turkish conquests. Nine early bishops of Thmuis have been identified: St. phileas, first known bishop, martyred at Alexandria in 307; St. Donatus, his successor, martyr; Liberius, who attended the Council of Nicaea I (325); St. Serapion, most noted of the bishops (c. 338–359); Ptolomaeus, perhaps an Arian usurper, who attended the Council of Seleucia (359); Aristobulus, who attended the Council of Ephesus (431); and three Monophysites in the Middle Ages.
Bibliography: m. le quien, Oriens Christianus (Graz 1958) 2:537. e. amÉlineau, La géographie de l'Égypte à l'époque copte (Paris 1893) 286, 500. j. quasten, Patrology (Westminster MD 1950) 2:117; 3:57–59, 80–85. f. van der meer and c. mohrmann, Atlas of the Early Christian World, ed. and tr. m. f. hedlund and h. h. rowley (New York 1958).
[m. c. mccarthy]