Tarsus

The city of Tarsus was a Syriac Orthodox archdiocese, attested between the seventh and thirteenth centuries. Nearly twenty Syrian Orthodox metropolitans of Tarsus are mentioned either by Michael the Syrian or in other Syriac Orthodox narrative sources. The archdiocese is last mentioned towards the end of the thirteenth century, and seems to have lapsed during the fourteenth century. Sources The main primary source for the Syriac Orthodox metropolitans of Tarsus is the record of episcopal consecrations appended to Volume III of the Chronicle of the Syriac Orthodox patriarch Michael the Syrian (1166–99). In this Appendix Michael listed most of the bishops consecrated by the Syriac Orthodox patriarchs of Antioch between the ninth and twelfth centuries. Twenty-eight Syriac Orthodox patriarchs sat during this period, and in many cases Michael was able to list the names of the bishops consecrated during their reigns, their monasteries of origin, and the place where they were consecrated. For the thirteenth century, Michael's lists are supplemented by several references in other Syriac Orthodox narrative sources. Location Tarsus, famed in Christian tradition as the birthplace of Saint Paul, was the metropolis of the Chalcedonian ecclesiastical province of Cilicia Prima. It was an obvious site for a Syriac Orthodox diocese, and may have been the seat of a Syriac Orthodox bishop or metropolitan as early as the sixth century.