NICOPOLI. - A Latin bishopric in Bulgaria, with its residence at Rustciuk (Ruse) on the Danube. It is directly subject to the Holy See. Appellate ordinary: Bucharest (15 Jan. 1920).
The city that gave its name to this bishopric was
founded by Trajan and at first belonged to the province of Thrace and then, after Septimius Severus, to Lower Moesia. It was situated on the Rositza River, a tributary of the Iantra, 80 km from Rustciuk. The bishopric was erected in the 5th cent.; the names of the bishops Marcellus (458) and Amantius (518) are known. Damaged by the Goths, the city was rebuilt by Justinian, but as a result of later invasions it declined again, and nothing further was known of the bishopric.
The diocese of N. was definitively restored in 1648 for the Paulicians who had converted to Catholicism some decades earlier, but its residence was subsequently transferred to Bucharest and later to Rustciuk. Within its territory (43,241 sq. km.) there are 21 churches and 19 parishes, with 24 priests and 21,892 faithful out of 2,861,326 inhabitants.