Bishop of Lydda

The Diocese of Lydda is one of the oldest and most significant Bishoprics of the early Christian Church in the Holy Land, faded under Persian and Arab-Islamic rule, was revived by the Crusaders and remains a Latin Catholic titular see.

Founded in the 1st century, there has been a Bishop of Lydda continuously since.

In early Christian times, Lydda (today El-Ludd (Arabic) or again Lod) was a prosperous Jewish town, located on the intersection of the North – South and the Egypt to Babylon roads, it was made wealthy on the trade that passed through it.

According to the Bible Lod was founded by Semed of the Israelite Tribe of Benjamin; Some of its inhabitants were led into Babylonian exile, part of them returned, but by mid second century, the king of Syria gave it to the Maccabees, who kept control until the arrival of Roman conqueror Pompei in Judea. Flavius Josephus confirms Julius Caesar gave it in 48 BC to the Hebrews, but Cassius sold the population in 44 BC, Marc Anthony released them two years later. The city saw Roman civil wars and Hebrew revolts in the first century, was officially renamed Diospolis, but remained popularly known as Lod or Lydda.

It harbored Christian since the Apostle Petrus preached there and cured the paralytic Eneas. It was a natural point to establish a church, which was already established when Saint Peter visited the city between 31–36AD. By 120AD most of its inhabitants were Christian. The episcopal see was established allegedly by the first Byzantine emperor Constantin the Great, as suffragan of the Archdiocese of Caesarea in Palestina, in the sway of the original Patriarchate of Jerusalem. In December 415, the Council of Diospolis was held in the bishopric to try British monk Pelagius; he was acquitted but his heresy Pelagianism condemned. The earliest historically recorded bishop is Aëtius, a friend of Arius.

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