Metropolis of Ancyra

[1] Emperor Julian (r. 361–363) visited the city during his ill-fated Persian campaign in 362, and reportedly ordered the execution of the martyrs Basil and Gemellus; a third condemned, Busiris, was spared his life.

[4] Its original suffragan sees in the Notitiae Episcopatuum were Aspona, Juliopolis, Kinna, Lagania (Anastasiopolis), Mnizus, and Tabia.

[1] Among the metropolitan sees subject to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Ancyra occupied a high place, coming fourth after Caesarea in Cappadocia, Ephesus, and Heraclea in Thrace.

[5] The city fell to the Seljuk Turks in the decade after the Battle of Manzikert (1071), and remained under Turkish rule thereafter, with the exception of a brief period of restored Byzantine control after 1101.

[5] A Christian population in the city is attested during the reign of Andronikos II Palaiologos (r. 1282–1328) in the story of the neomartyr Niketas, who was lector at a church in Ancyra.

[7] The situation is clearer beginning with the metropolitanate of Parthenius (1602–1631), who appears to have resided in his see, and engaged himself in trying to restore its flock and finances, that had suffered greatly as a result of the Celali rebellions in the previous decades.

More importantly, the Christian population that remained was dispersed and isolated in small communities, with low social, educational, and financial standing, who suffered further decline during the Celali rebellions.

[9] In order to counterbalance this, on the suggestion of Metropolitan Parthenius, in 1610 a number of towns (Tilhissar, İnebolu, and Tosya) were transferred from the Metropolis of Gangra; the latter never acquiesced to this, however, and within the next few decades secured their return.

[4] The Metropolis of Ancyra retained its traditional high rank among the metropolises of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, at least until 1715, when it is still recorded in the fourth place in the Syntagmation of Chrysanthos of Jerusalem.

[4] At the beginning of the 20th century, the annual income of the metropolis was estimated at 200,000 piastres,[11] and according to the registers of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, comprised a flock of 10,598 in 1913/14, of which 2,251 in Ankara (up from 1,637 in 1881), 4,398 in Kütahya (4,050 in the 1880s), 407 in Haymana (23 in 1881), 2,952 or 1,941 in Eskişehir (1,147 in the 1880s), and the rest in the smaller settlements.

This reflects the important role played to the metropolis' numerical strength by the communities further west, around Kütahya and Eskişehir, which had been incorporated into it at some unknown point.