Gerrha

Gerrha

A titular see in the province of Augustamnica Prima, suffragan of Pelusium in the Patriarchate of Alexandria. The city is mentioned by Pliny (Hist. Nat., VI, 29). Erastosthenes (46, 10) asserts that the district was formerly under water. Strabo (XVI, 2, 33) places Gerrha between Pelusium and Mt. Cassius. Finally, in the sixth century the geographer Hierocles (Synecdemus, n. 698) speaks of it as being in Augustamnica. Lequien (Oriens christ., II, 551) makes known the names of four bishops of the see: Eudaemon, Pirosus, and Nilanmon, at the end of the fourth century, and at the beginning of the fifth; Stephen, who in 451 assisted at the Council of Chalcedon. Marshes have encroached upon the land in modern times; the abandoned city is found north of Pelusium on the road to El-Arish.

S. VAILHÉ