Rhesaena is a Catholic titular see

Titular see

A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular bishop", "titular metropolitan", or "titular archbishop"....

. The original diocese was in Osrhoene, a suffragan of Edessa

Edessa, Mesopotamia

Edessa is the Greek name of an Aramaic town in northern Mesopotamia, as refounded by Seleucus I Nicator. For the modern history of the city, see Şanlıurfa.-Names:...

.

Rhesaena (Resaena

Resaena

Resaena was the ancient name of the city of Ras al-Ayn, Syria.Resaena was close to the frontier between the Roman Empire and the Sassanid Empire, and saw the alternate domination of the two powers between the 2nd and 4th century....

: numerous variations of the name appear in ancient authors) was an important town at the northern extremity of Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...

, near the sources of the Chaboras (now the Khabur River

Khabur River

The Khabur River , , , ) is the largest perennial tributary to the Euphrates in Syrian territory. Although the Khabur originates in Turkey, the karstic springs around Ra's al-'Ayn are the river's main source of water. Several important wadis join the Khabur north of Al-Hasakah, together creating...

. It was on the way from Carrhæ to Nicephorium, about eighty miles from Nisibis

Nisibis

Nusaybin Nisêbîn) is a city in Mardin Province, Turkey, populated mainly by Kurds. Earlier Arameans, Arabs, and Armenians lived in the city. The population of the city is 83,832 as of 2009.-Ancient Period:...

 and forty from Dara

Dara

-2011 uprising:The city of Daraa was the starting point of the 2011 uprising against the regime lead by Bashar Al-Assad. It all started when 15 children from the same family were arrested in early March 2011 for writing an anti regime slogan on the wall of their school. The children's ages ranged...

. Nearby, Gordian III

Gordian III

Gordian III , was Roman Emperor from 238 to 244. Gordian was the son of Antonia Gordiana and an unnamed Roman Senator who died before 238. Antonia Gordiana was the daughter of Emperor Gordian I and younger sister of Emperor Gordian II. Very little is known on his early life before his acclamation...

 fought the Persians in 243, at the battle of Resaena

Battle of Resaena

The Battle of Resaena or Resaina, near Ceylanpinar, Turkey, was fought in 243 between the forces of the Roman Empire, led by Praetorian Prefect Timesitheus, and a Sassanid Empire army, led by King Shapur I. The Romans were victorious....

. It is now Ra's al-'Ayn

Ra's al-'Ayn

Ra's al-'Ayn is a Syrian city administratively belonging to Al-Hasakah Governorate. Ra's al-'Ayn has an altitude of 360 m. It has a population of 55,247, many of them being Assyrian/Syriacs, Arabs, Kurds, Armenians, Chechens, or Syrian Turkmen. There is a border crossing to Ceylanpınar in Turkey...

, Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

.

Its coins show that it was a Roman colony from the time of Septimus Severus. The Notitia dignitatum (ed. Boecking, I, 400) represents it as under the jurisdiction of the governor or Dux of Osrhoene. Hierocles

Hierocles (author of Synecdemus)

Hierocles or Hierokles was a Byzantine geographer of the sixth century and the attributed author of the Synecdemus or Synekdemos, which contains a table of administrative divisions of the Byzantine Empire and lists of the cities of each...

 (Synecdemus

Synecdemus

The Synecdemus or Synekdemos is a geographic text, attributed to Hierocles, which contains a table of administrative divisions of the Byzantine Empire and lists of the cities of each. The work is dated to the reign of Justinian but prior to 535, as it divides the 912 listed cities in the Empire...

, 714, 3) also locates it in this province but under the name of Theodosiopolis; it had in fact obtained the favour of Theodosius the Great and taken his name. It was fortified by Justinian. In 1393 it was nearly destroyed by Tamerlane's troops.

Bishops

Le Quien (Oriens christianus, II, 979) mentions nine bishops of Rhesaena:

• Antiochus, present at the Council of Nicæa
  First Council of Nicaea
  The First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325...
  
   (325);
• Eunomius, who (about 420) forced the Persians to raise the siege of the town;
• John, at the Council of Antioch (444);
• Olympius at Chalcedon (451);
• Andrew (about 490);
• Peter, exiled with Sevenian (518);
• Ascholius, his successor, a Monophysite;
• Daniel (550);
• Sebastianus (about 600), a correspondent of Gregory the Great.

The see is again mentioned in the tenth century in a Greek Notitiæ episcopatuum of the Patriarchate of Antioch (Vailhé, in "Echos d'Orient", X, 94). Le Quien (ibid., 1329 and 1513) mentions two Jacobite

West Syrian Rite

The West Syrian Rite, also known as the Syrian Rite or the Syro-Antiochene Rite, is a Christian liturgical rite chiefly practiced in the Syriac Orthodox Church and churches related to or descended from it. It is part of the liturgical family known as the Antiochene Rite, which originated in the...

bishops: Scalita, author of a hymn and of homilies, and Theodosius (1035). About a dozen others are known.