Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.
BABILONIA dei LATINI. - B. currently constitutes the title of the archbishop of the Latin see (Babilonensis Latinorum), immediately subject [to the Holy See], who resides in Baghdad. At first it was a simple bishopric, the episcopal series of which begins in 1632, when Urban VIII, granting the request of the
(from R. J. Koldewey, Das wiedererstehende Babylon, 3rd ed., Leipzig 1935) BABILONIA - Plan of the inner part of B. with the quadrilateral of E-sag-ila and the tower E-temen-an-ki.some time later a pious woman from Meaux, Marie Riconard, made a donation to the Pontiff of 6,000 Spanish pistoles (approx. 125,000 gold lire) for the creation of a bishopric in infidel lands on the condition that she could present the first incumbent and that his successors should always be French. With the bull Super universas of June 6, 1638, Urban VIII assigned this foundation to the bishop of B. or Baghdad, with the obligation of residence for the incumbents, who all had to be of French nationality (R. de Martinis [corr. from Martiria], Iuris Pontificii de Propaganda Fide, I, Rome 1888, pp. 174-175). From 1773 there is a gap in the series of incumbents, who reappear in 1820 following the reorganization of the diocese that took place in 1818.
On Sept. 19, 1848 the diocese, which numbers a few thousand faithful, was erected into an archbishopric (v. BAGADIO).
BIBL.: R. Janin, Bagdad, in DHG, VI, col. 199.
Alberto Galietti
Cite this article
“BABILONIA DEI LATINI.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II (1949), p. 381. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/babilonia-dei-latini.
