Berissa (Ancient Greek:Βηρίσσα), also spelledBerisa,Verisa, orVerissa, was a city in the lateRoman province ofPontus Polemoniacus, in Asia Minor, which Kiepert andW. M. Ramsay[1] have identified with the modern village of Baulus (also known asBolus), 25 kilometres south-west ofTokat.[2]
In the time ofSt. Basil Berissa was included in thediocese of Ibora, as appears from Basil's letters LXXXVI and LXXXVII, but soon after became an independent bishopric inArmenia Prima, withSebasteia as metropolis. This important change took place before 458, when its bishop, Maxentius subscribed with his colleagues of Armenia Prima the synodal letter to theEmperor Leo I (Mansi, XII, 587-589).Hierocles, at the beginning of the 6th century, does not treat it as an independent city; but it is mentioned as such byJustinian in aNovella of 536, among the cities ofArmenia Secunda. The emperor, when creating the province ofArmenia Quarta in 536, gave to Armenia Prima the name of Armenia Secunda, without altering the established ecclesiastical organization, so that Berissa remained a suffragan see of Sebasteia.[2] At some point while Berissa, under the name Verissa, was part of Armenia Secunda, the see was elevated to archiepiscopal rank, where Verissa is still regarded by theRoman Catholic Church as atitular see.[3]
Among its later bishops may be mentioned Thomas, who was present at thefifth ecumenical council at Constantinople, in 553 (Mansi, IX, 175), and another at thesixth in 680–681 (Mansi, XI, 66). It appears still later in theNotitiae Episcopatuum assuffragan to Sebasteia. In some texts, it appears as Merisse or Kerisse, merely palaeographical mistakes.[2][4][5][6]
Berissa was a Latin bishopric as late as the 15th century, when Paul II appointed the Franciscan Libertus de Broehun to succeed the deceased bishop, John (Wadding, Annales Minorum, VI, 708).
No longer a residential bishopric, Berissa is today listed by theCatholic Church as atitular see.[7]
37°15′05″N32°52′39″E / 37.251463°N 32.877545°E /37.251463; 32.877545