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Thediocese of Sufar was anepiscopal see in theRoman province ofMauretania Caesariensis duringlate antiquity.[1] The exact location of the see is unknown, but it is believed to have been situated in what is now modern-dayAlgeria.[2]
Christianity arrived relatively late in Mauretania Caesariensis compared to other regions ofRoman North Africa, possibly sparing it from some of the earlier theological controversies. Like most bishoprics in the western part of the province, Sufar appears to have flourished from late antiquity until sometime after theFirst Council of Nicaea.
Two bishops of Sufar are recorded in theNotitiae episcopatuum of 484: Victor and Romanus, both bearing the designationSufaritanus.[3][4]
This duplication has led to scholarly debate. Writing in the early nineteenth century,Stefano Antonio Morcelli argued that the town known asSufasar, located between Manliana and Veliscos in Mauretania Caesariensis according to theItinerarium Antonini, came to be known in abbreviated form as Sufar.[3] He maintained that the episcopal titleSufaritanus was a contraction ofSufasaritanus, and that both Victor and Romanus may have belonged to the same see rather than to two distinct dioceses. Morcelli also noted that Victor was among the Catholic bishops exiled by theVandal kingHuneric after thesynod of 484, and that Romanus, listed shortly after Victor, was likewise a Catholic, although some sources may have erroneously treated him asDonatist.[3]
Joseph Mesnage [fr], writing nearly a century later, followed a similar line of reasoning in suggesting thatSufaritanus may be a contracted form ofSufasaritanus, and that one of the two bishops traditionally assigned to Sufar might have belonged instead to the diocese of Sufasar.[4] He also proposed an alternative theory, namely that one of the names listed as "Sufar" in theNotitia may refer to Safar, a city in theregion of Altava attested in Latin epigraphy.[4]
The duplication of bishops in theNotitia thus remains a point of scholarly uncertainty, possibly reflecting either scribal error, contraction of toponyms, or the existence of multiple similarly named sees. Whatever the case, the diocese likely ceased to function following theMuslim conquest of the Maghreb.
In 1933, the see of Sufar was restored as atitular see.[5] The current titular bishop isRobert Reed, who was appointed in 2016, succeedingRobert Prevost, who was later elected Pope Leo XIV in 2025.[1]