AMASEA. — First city of the province of Helenopontus in Asia Minor, on the river Iris; capital of the province during the imperial period, it was severely damaged by an earthquake in the year 529 A.D. (Procopius, *Historia arcana*, XVIII, 42). In a life of St. Basil (*Acta SS. Aprilis*, III, ed. Venice 1738, p. LVI) it is recounted that in A. there was shown the place called the Chair of the Apostles, where St. Peter is said to have preached and to have appointed Nicetius as bishop of A. Another tradition, however, attributes the first evangelization of A. to the apostle St. Andrew.
A native of A. is St. Basiliscus, bishop of Comana, venerated in the East on May 22 (*Synaxarium Constantinopolitanum*, col. 69). Also from A. is St. Philanthus, martyred with three companions and venerated on August 18 (ibid., col. 699). In the life of St. Basil, bishop of A., martyred c. 322, mention is made of the first Christian church, said to have been built by the bishop himself within the city and where his tomb was located. Eusebius, however, recounts that several churches of A. were closed or destroyed during the persecution of Licinius (*Vita Constantini*, 12; *Historia ecclesiastica*, X, 8, 14).
Among the military martyrs of A., a St. Publius is venerated in the East on April 26 (*Synaxarium*, loc. cit., col. 630), contemporary with St. Basil. Earlier, namely of February 17, 306, is the martyrdom of the soldier Theodore the Recruit (H. Delehaye, *Les légendes grecques des saints militaires*, Paris 1909, pp. 11-43; 127-213). In his honor, Emperor Anastasius I (491-518) dedicated a basilica during the episcopate of Bishop Mamas (S. Pétrides, *Note sur une inscription chrétienne d'A.*, in *Échos d'Orient*, 3 [1900], pp. 273-78). In the first half of the 5th century, mention is made of the church dedicated to St. Phocas, the martyred gardener of Sinope, as attested by the panegyric delivered in his honor by Bishop Asterius of A. (cf. Van de Vorst, *St. Phocas*, in *Analecta Bollandiana*, 30 [1911], pp. 252-95). Many restorations carried out in the churches of A. during the time of Justinian are attested by Procopius (*De aedificiis*, III, 7).
From the life of St. Eutychius, from the end of the 6th century, the names of some monasteries are also derived, such as the one located near the Acropolis dedicated to St. John, and another of which St. Eutychius was abbot before 552, the year in which he became Patriarch of Constantinople. From the first half of the 5th century is the monastery to which belonged Meletius and Seleucus, later bishops of A. Among the churches are mentioned that dedicated to St. Thalelaeus the martyr, situated on the mountain overlooking A. Churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary and to St. Michael were set up in spacious halls of private dwellings.
A. was invaded by the Arabs in 1075.
Pope Benedict XIV, with the Bull *Ad suprema* of February 15, 1743, united the metropolitan see of A. with that of Pavia, and thus the bishop of this see received the pallium; but Pius VII, with the Bull *Paternae charitatis studium* of March 16, 1819, again separated the two titles.