Roman Catholic Diocese of Civita


The Roman Catholic Diocese of Civita was a Latin Catholic bishopric in the Gallura region of northern Sardinia.
It was heir to the ancient diocese of Pausania or Phausania , restored in 1070 as the Diocese of Gallura, in 1113 renamed after its episcopal seat as the Diocese of Civita. In 1839 it was renamed as Diocese of Civita–Tempio, until its formal suppression in 1986, when it was merged into the Diocese of Tempio-Ampurias.

Ancient diocese of Fausania

No later than the sixth century, a Roman bishopric was established at a place called Pausania or Phausania, which may be Olbia, Tempio Pausania or even Posada.
While local Saint Simplicius is traditionally revered as its 4th century founding first bishop, a historical thesis holds it may have been founded by Catholic bishop exiled by king Huneric of the Vandal Kingdom after his council of Carthage replaced them with Donatist heretic counterparts, only to be abandoned again due to the 552 invasion of the Ostrogoths under king Totila.
Its first historical mention is in 594, when Pope Gregory the Great invites its Metropolitan, the Archdiocese of Cagliari, to nominate a candidate for the vacant see. Its first documented incumbent, bishop Victor, was mentioned in a papal letter in 599, recalling his work to evangelize the pagan locals, and attended a synod in Rome in 600.
The see of Phausania is still listed in the Byzantine Notitia Episcopatuum until circa 1000; but this may well have been a refusal to canonically acknowledge the diocese being effectively wiped much earlier, plausibly in the 8th century by Arab invaders.

Diocese of Civita(-Tempio)

The bishopric was only restored probably in 1070, as Diocese of Gallura, named after the Giudicato of Gallura, one of the four autonomous temporal jurisdictions into which Pope Alexander II divided the island, but is first recorded on a map dated 1095.
In the 11th century, the Basilica of San Simplicio was erected as diocesan cathedral.
The see was exempt, i.e. directly dependent on the Holy See bishopric of Gallura was renamed after its see as Diocese of Civita. In 1138, the papal bulla Tunc apostolicae sedis, from Pope Innocent II, made both suffragan of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Pisa on the Italian peninsula, but it seems both were rendered exempt again later in that century, unlike the other three giudicati, where Metropolitans of their own were established.
It has had some uncanonical incumbents, not obedient to the canonical Popes of Rome, two rather to the Antipopes in Avignon.
From 1506.06.05, the see was held in personal union. Meanwhile, on 1839.08.26, the see of Civita had been renamed as Diocese of Civita–Tempio. After the merger, the former cathedral at Olbia remained only a minor basilica, while the cathedral see is the Cattedrale di S. Pietro Apostolo, at Tempio-Pausania.

Episcopal Ordinaries

;Suffragan Bishops of Civita
;Suffragan Bishops of Civita
;Suffragan Bishops of Civita–Tempio; all still also Bishop of Ampurias aeque principaliter