1. General history

1.1. 14th -17th centuries

The ecclesiastical authority of Nicomedia is the oldest one in the area of Bithynia and one of the oldest of Christianity: ecclesiastical tradition mentions Prochorus as its first bishop, as early as the 1^st cent. AD, while there is a positive reference to the existence of the bishopric in 170 AD. This historical tradition imparted great prestige on the Nicomedia metropolis, the prelate of which was the oldest metropolitan in the province of Bithynia, and the first one to bear the title “exarch of all Bithynia”. This prestige did not diminish when the Nicomedia metropolis became the stronghold of Arianism. On the contrary, the symbolic and hierarchical elevation (due to the two Ecumenical Councils that took place there) of the two other Bithynian metropolises, Nicaea and Chalcedon, also affected the metropolis of Nicomedia, which retained its high status and its hierarchical rank between these two. Although now the three metropolitans shared the title of “exarch of Bithynia”, the metropolitan of Nicomedia remained one rank above those of Chalcedon and Nicaea (he occupied the 7^th rank, as opposed to the 8^th and 9^th rank of the other two metropolises).¹

The high prestige of the Nicomedia metropolitan was the result of the antiquity of his seat, but also of a practical reason, the city's proximity to Constantinople; this was also the case with the other metropolises of Bithynia, which meant their high priests could participate in the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate more often, without being forced to forbear their ecclesiastical duties in their domains. The combination of these two parameters proved decisive for the survival of the metropolis (from now on: diocese) in the years of Ottoman rule, as it did for the other neighbouring ecclesiastical provinces of Nicaea and Chalcedon.

Nikomideia (İzmid) was the last city of Asia Minor to remain under Byzantine control in the first decades of the 14^th century, until its capture by the Ottomans (1337); the long period during which the city was embattled and the consequences of its capture certainly hampered its ability to function as the seat of an active metropolitan. The last attested metropolitan of the 14^th century (before the Ottoman capture) is Maximos (1324-1327); after 1327 we have a long period during which the metropolitan seat remains vacant or the title of the metropolitan of Nicomedia is ceded to another prelate.² The episcopal list of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which captures the situation of the 14^th century, refers to the metropolitan of Hungry and Plagena as “standing in for” the metropolitan of Nicomedia.³ It is doubtful whether the metropolitan Makarios, mentioned for the period 1385-1397, ever exercised his duties, for in 1401 the seat of Nicomedia is mentioned again as vacant, and the province was ceded to the metropolitan of Prousa.⁴

Metropolitans of Nicomedia are since mentioned sporadically during the 15^th century,⁵ although the final reconstitution of the ecclesiastical authority occurs after 1453, in the context of the overall reconstitution of the ecclesiastical administration in Asia Minor, following the institutional incorporation of the Orthodox Patriarchate into the Ottoman structures. Thus the metropolitan is mentioned in an episcopal list of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which is thought to reflect the situation of the 16^th century, as well as in two surviving patriarchal berats dating to 1483 and 1525.⁶ The great concentration of dioceses in the area of Bithynia (Chalcedon, Nicomedia, Nicaea, Prousa, Cyzicus), in a period when only few dioceses survived throughout Asia Minor and covered extensive areas, is a result of the high status of some of these dioceses, as their seats were cities where Ecumenical Councils had taken place, and of their high rank in the hierarchy (Chalcedon, Nicomedia, Nicaea), but also of a more practical reason, namely, their proximity to Constantinople; at that time this proximity allowed the metropolitans to frequently attend the Holy Synod in Constantinople, or even dwell there permanently, managing also to maintain steady contact with their territory.⁷

The seat of the Nicomedia diocese remained in the city of Nikomideia (İzmid), contrary to other dioceses the seat of which was relocated to other cities, like e.g. of Nicaea, which at some unknown was moved to Kios (Gemlik); this indicates that the city continued to harbour Christian population. The extent of the province, however, which was limited to one part only of the Koca-ili sancak (Mesothynia), which the diocese of Nicomedia shared with that of Chalcedon, meant that the flock was small and could not but provide very few resources for the maintenance of the ecclesiastical authority and the metropolitan, given the decline of the Christian element following the Ottoman conquest. To counter this problem the purview of the Nicomedia diocese expanded to include the Apollonias and Mihaliç area, places, that is, that were geographically unrelated to the territorial core of the diocese. In order to deal with the issues caused by the territorial fragmentation of the province of Nicomedia, during the Early Ottoman period there were plans to form a special ecclesiastical authority, the bishopric of Apollonias, under the jurisdiction of the metropolitan of Nicomedia. The existence of the Apollonias bishopric is also attested in the episcopal list of the 16^th century.⁸ It is one of the very few known dependent bishoprics in Asia Minor during the Ottoman period (other known cases pertain only to the dicese of Trebizond); this phenomenon is explained with reference to the special conditions behind the formation of the purview of an ecclesiastical province.

1.2. 18th - 20th century

A significant advantage of the diocese of Nicomedia, as well as of the other Bithynian dioceses, was their proximity to Constantinople, which allowed their metropolitans to participate regularly to the Holy Synod without having to spend long periods of time away from their provinces. They were considered high-prestige and influence seats, and were much sought-after by distinguished and ambitious prelates. This up to then informal privileged status was formalized in 1757, when through a sultanic berat the so-called ‘gerontism’ was institutionalized.

The persons defined as ‘gerontes’ (elder) metropolitans were the five prealtes coming from the provinces closest to Constantinople (Heraclea, Cyzicus, Nicaea, Nicomedia and Chalcedon); it was accepted that these could permanently reside in Constantinople. With the edict of 1757 their permanent presence in the Holy Synod was established; they formed a body superior to the plenum, had the right to appear before the sultan directly, and were responsible for announcing the selection of a new patriarch or to propose his removal. In theory they represented the will of all the synodic prealtes; in practice, however, the patriarchs were placed under the informal supervision of this body and the interests it served.⁹

The inclusion of the metropolitan of Nicomedia in the board of the five metropolitans was a natural result of the province’s geographical location and the enhanced role he de facto played in the affairs of the Patriarchate.

From the mid-19^th century the diocese of Nicomedia partook in the historical developments connected with the population increase and economic growth of the Orthodox Christians, the institutionalized elevation of the metropolitans to top representatives of the Greek-Orthodox communities in the provincial administration, and the flowering of education, largely through institutions controlled by the ecclesiastical authorities. The demographic increase of the Greek Orthodox element in north-western Asia Minor resulted in the securing of a sufficient population base for the diocese of Nicomedia too, as well as great economic prosperity. In the annual subsidy paid to the Greek-Orthodox "Ethnikon Tameion" (National Fund) and the Patriarch, defined in 1860-1862, the diocese of Nicomedia ranks 6^th among the 14 dioceses of Asia Minor, although in terms of its population size it only ranked 19^th among the 23 provinces, according to evidence thought to capture the situationc.1912 (its population was smaller than that of the other dioceses of Asia Minor due to its small geographical extent).¹⁰

2. Geographical area and demographic condition

Already from the Early Ottoman period the diocese of Nicomedia comprised two distinct and geographically discontinuous sections, the district of Nikomideia in Mesothynia and the area of Apollonias. The proximity of the Nicomedia province to three other eparchies (Prousa, Nicaea and Chalcedon) obviously curtailed significantly the diocese’s domain, while from a demographic point of view the potential of this province must have been marginal. In the area of Mesothynia (Koca-ili), which at any case the diocese of Nicomedia shared with that of Chalcedon, Barkan mentioned the existence of only 27 Christian households for the 1520-1535 period, a figure one finds hard to accept as accurate, notwithstanding the certain and significant dwindling of the Christian element there. For the 1570-1580 period, 1993 households are mentioned,¹¹ a figure which appears more reasonable. Because the above figures result from the general and collective records for the entire province of Koca-ili, we do not know which percentage of the local population belonged to the Chalcedon metropolis, and which percentage belonged to that of Nicomedia. Obviously, territorial and demographic considerations led to the subsumption of the Apollonias area to the province of Nicomedia, to which it belonged until the end.

The precise limits of the Nicomedia province can be accurately reported only for the late Ottoman period (late 19^th - early 20^th centuries). In the area of Mesothynia, its borders with the diocese of Chalcedon were defined by Rhysion (Aretsou) and it incorporated only the immediate hinterland of Nikomideia, the kaza of İzmid and the kazas of Adapazarı,¹² Yalova, Karamürsel and Kendere. The section of Apollonias virtually included the entire kaza of Mihaliç, part of the kaza of Mudanya (excluding the city itself), as well as the island Kalolimnos (Imralı).

Up to 1923-23, for the province of the Nicomedia 35 Greek-Orthodox communities are recorded in the sector of Mesothynia and 32 in the sector of Apollonias, i.e. 67 communities in total.¹³ With respect to the demographic figures, according to the overall census for the dioceses of Asia Minor, compiled by the Club of Anatolian Greek “Anatoli” in 1931, thought to reflect the picture c.1912, the diocese of Nicomedia is one of the least dense, its flock numbering 43,950 people (though we should not overlook the rather small territorial extent diocese).¹⁴If in the case of other provinces the figures from this census are inflated with respect to the size of the Greek-Orthodox population; in the case of the diocese of Nicomedia this figure is very smaller as compared to those that result from other calculations. For instance, Anagnostopoulou has restored the numbers of the Greek-Orthodox population in the province of Nicomedia as follows:¹⁵

Kaza	Greek-Orthodox
İzmid	5,920
Yalova	10,218
Karamürsel	6,370
Adapazarı	6,565
Kendere	6,276
Mihaliç	21,508
Mudanya (part of)	3,272
Kalolimnos	800
Total	60,929