Aeliae

{{Short description|Roman-era city in Byzacena}}

File:Roman Empire - Africa Proconsularis (125 AD).svg]]

Aeliae or Æliæ was a Roman-era city in the province of Byzacena.[http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/former/t0702.htm Aeliae] at www.gcatholic.org.

The town must have been of some importance as it was made a bishopric early after the Council of Nicaea and it was a Catholic diocese throughout antiquity.

Its exact location is tentatively given as ruins near Henchir-MrabaIt Ant 55.4E. Babelon, R. Cagnat and S. Reinach, Atlas archéologique de la Tunisie (1:50,000), Paris, 1892–1913 73.19-20. southeast of Ouled Chamekh, between lake Sebkhet Cherita and Sebkhet de Sidi El Hani in the central part of what is today Mahdia Governorate, Tunisia.Auguste Audollent, v. Abaradirensis, in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. I, (Paris, 1909), col. 13

Aeliae was also the seat of an ancient Christian bishopric. There are three bishops documented as residing in Aeliae during antiquity.Pius Bonifacius Gams, [http://www.wbc.poznan.pl/dlibra/doccontent?id=65154&dirids=1 Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae], (Leipzig, 1931), p. 465.Stefano Antonio Morcelli, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dO4-AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA154 Africa christiana], Volume I, (Brescia, 1816), pp. 154–155.

• The Catholic Fascinullo intervened at the Conference of Carthage of 411, between Catholic and Donatist bishops of Roman North Africa
• The Bishop Donaziano participated in the synod assembled in Carthage in 484 by the arian King Huneric the Vandal, after which Donaziano was exiled.
• Bishop Constantine took part in the anti-monotheistic Council of Carthage (641).

Since 1933 Aeliae has been a titular bishopric. Since 2019 the title has been held by Ricardo Augusto Rodríguez Álvarez, Auxiliary Bishop of Lima, Peru.{{cite press release | url = https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2019/04/13/190413c.html | access-date = 10 May 2020 | date= 13 April 2019 | publisher = Holy See Press Office | title = Resignations and Appointments, 13.04.2019 }}