Euroea or Euroia (Ancient Greek: Εὔροια; also transcribed as Eurœa) was a city in Epirus, in western Greece, during late antiquity. It was abandoned in the early 7th century due to Slavic invasions. During the 4th–8th centuries, it was a bishopric. Since the 18th century, it has also been a titular see of the Catholic Church. Its site is located near the modern village of Glyki in Greece.[1]
St. Donatus, bishop of Euroea, lived under Theodosius I (r. 379–395) and performed miracles, including providing a local settlement with abundant watersources (likely connected to the name "Euroea", "well-flowing").[2][3] A church dedicated to St. Donatus was erected, probably on the site of an ancient pagan temple (Omphalion).[2] The town belonged to the Roman province of Epirus vetus.[4]
Bishops of Euroea are attested at councils in the 5th and 6th centuries,[2] and the city is mentioned by Hierocles.[5] According to Procopius, Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) resettled the inhabitants of Euroea to an islet in a neighbouring lake and built there a strong city,[6] commonly thought to be on the site of Ioannina.[2]
As a result of the Slavic invasions, in 603 the Bishop of Euroea and the inhabitants, taking the relics of St. Donatus with them, fled to Kassiopi on Corfu.[2] The original site of Euroea is unclear: Michel Le Quien identified it with modern Paramythia, others with the nearby ancient settlement of Photice.[3] It is now tentatively located near the village of Glyki.[2][7][1]
The first (and only) mention of the bishopric in one of the Notitiae Episcopatuum is in the so-called "iconoclast notitia" (compiled some time after 787), where it is listed (as Εὐρόσου) as the second among the suffragans of the Metropolis of Nicopolis.[8]
^Darrouzès, Jean (1981). Notitiae episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae: texte critique, introduction et notes. La Geographie ecclesiastique de l’Empire byzantin (in French). Paris: Institut français d'études byzantines. pp. 32, 236.