ANCYRA. – A city of Galatia in Asia Minor, now Angora (Turkish Ankara), capital of present-day Turkey.
It must have received the Christian faith very early, but it appears in history only toward the end of the 2nd century, at the time of the struggle against Montanism. Among its monuments, the famous temple of Augustus (on whose walls the emperor’s testament is found inscribed) is to be noted; it was converted into a church around the 6th century. Of the same period is the basilica of St Clement, built of brick and with a dome, very similar to Hagia Sophia, of which ruins remain. Some martyrs were venerated there, especially the two brothers Plato and Antiochus.
ANCYRA, DIOCESE OF THE ARMENIANS. – Although A. is one of the oldest Armenian dioceses in Asia Minor, a genuine Catholic Armenian community there appears only around 1600, reaching a notable degree of development in the following century through the work of Armenian missionaries, alumni of the Urban College of Propaganda Fide and especially disciples of Abbot Mechitar (q.v.). It suffered many persecutions at the hands of the Turkish government, instigated by schismatic Armenians. Following the very serious persecution of 1827–28 and by virtue of the brief of Pius IX of 6 July 1830, which established the new archiepiscopal see of Constantinople, the Catholic community of A. was withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the non-united archbishop. Finally, on 30 April 1850, Pius IX erected A. as an episcopal see, together with the other four Armenian sees of Artuin, Erzerum, Brusa and Trebizond.