1. Historical Background

The history of the diocese of Pergamon is divided into two phases far remote from each other. In medieval times the metropolis of Pergamon was active in the Late Byzantine period (13th-early 14th century); from then on, the ecclesiastical administration of the metropolis ceased to exist for centuries, until 1922. However, its reestablishment was extremely short, since soon after the Greek-Orthodox inhabitants of Asia Minor were expelled to Greece.

The bishopric of Pergamon, one of the earliest in Asia Minor and one of the seven ones reported in Apocalypse of John, was detached from the Diocese of Ephesus and promoted to metropolis in the Late Byzantine period, possibly during the 13th century.¹ However, it soon ceased to exist because of the Turkish conquest of the region in the 1310s and, as a result, the decline of the Christian population. From then on and throughout the Ottoman period, the area of the former province of Pergamon became part of the province of the diocese of Ephesus.

In the Ottoman period the diocese of Ephesus was one of the largest dioceses of Asia Minor, extending until the 18th century over the western coastal areas from Caria to Aeolis, with the exception of Smyrna and its suburbs, which formed their own diocese. The first time the region became ecclesiastically independent was in the 19th century, when the province of Ephesus, whose bishoprics and subsequent dioceses of Heliopolis and Thyateira, Crene and Anea had already been detached, was officially divided into the three metropolitan districts of Magnisia (Manisa), Kordelio (Kürdelan) and Cydoniae (Ayvalık). The first district was directly commanded by the metropolitan, while the other two by a primatial commissary, unofficially known as ‘bishop’.

The request for the partition of the formerly large ecclesiastical provinces and the establishment of local new ones is associated with the steady and large increase in the number of Christian Orthodox on the western coasts of Asia Minor from the second half of the 18th century on. It is also associated with the need for substantial representation of the communities in the provincial administration, since after the relevant reforms were completed in 1864 the metropolitans formed the senior representative body of the Christian millet.² After the rupture in the relationship between the community of Cydoniae (Ayvalık) and the metropolitan of Ephesus, which led to the establishment of the diocese of Cydoniae in 1908,³ the remaining part of the metropolitan district of Cydoniae continued being part of the province of Ephesus, with its seat being transferred to Pergamos (Bergama) already from 1905.

The next and last partition of the province of Ephesus took place in 1922, when the dioceses of Pergamon and Vourla (Urla) were established. The establishment of the diocese of Pergamon signalled the independence of the namesake district of the province of Ephesus in the form it had acquired after the detachment of Cydoniae. The establishment of the two latter dioceses is actually associated with the framework of the Greek administration in Asia Minor. It is quite obvious that the Ecumenical Patriarchate followed a policy aiming to further promote ecclesiastical administration in the Greek zone. In addition, the establishment of the two dioceses may be associated with matters of high policy, such as the aspirations of Patriarch Meletios Metaxakis towards promoting the plans and influence of the movement of Asia Minor Defense. However, there were no developments after the two new dioceses were established as the collapse of the Greek Army, the subsequent persecution of large parts of the Greek-Orthodox and the exchange of populations followed soon after.

2. Geography and Demographic Situation

At a rough estimate, the region occupied by the diocese of Pergamon must coincide with the region of the medieval metropolis. In terms of geography, the primatial district and subsequent diocese of Pergamon extended over the entire historical Aeolis and over a small part of Lydia, with the exception of Cydoniae and some other settlements of the district, which formed the diocese of the same name in 1908. In terms of administration, the territorial jurisdiction of the diocese of Pergamon extended to the kaymakamlıks of Bergama (Pergamos), Adramytti (Edremit), Kemer and to some villages of the kaymakamlık of Manisa (Magnisia). A total of 33 Greek Orthodox communities are recorded.⁴ According to information provided by the Club of Anatolian Greeks ‘Anatoli’ in Athens concerning the year 1905, the area later incorporated into the primatial district and the diocese of Pergamon was then inhabited by 32,930 Greek Orthodox and included 23 parish churches and 31 priests.⁵ Anagnostopoulou estimates that the Greek Orthodox population of the territory incorporated into the diocese of Pergamon increased mainly in the 19th century and amounted to 31,420 before the persecutions of the early 20th century. There were only a few locals, while the rest generally came from Lesvos, other Aegean islands and the Peloponnese.⁶