The
diocese was an ancient one, established in
one of the first Christian communities ever created: it was due to the work of
St Peter and
St Paul. Records of the community are dated as far back as the 2nd century. According to the
Apostolic Constitutions (7.46), the first
Bishop of Caesarea was
Zacchaeus the Publican.
Caesarea Maritima was the capital of Roman
Iudaea province and after the
Bar Kokhba revolt it was the metropolis of the diocese of
Palaestina Prima. Until the establishment of the
Patriarchate of Jerusalem, it was subject to the
patriarch of Antioch. The most notable bishop of Caesarea was
Eusebius of Caesarea, also known as Eusebius Pamphili. The
Library of Caesarea Maritima established by
Pamphilus of Caesarea remained in existence until the Arabs
invaded Palestine in the 7th century. The diocese suffered a troubled history following the decline of the
Eastern Roman Empire in the 7th century. The city was raided by the
Sassanid Persians in the early 7th century. Following the conquest of the Holy Land by the Islamic armies in the 630s, the diocese and city suffered tremendously and steadily declined in size and importance. It was finally conquered in 640 following a protracted siege. Nonetheless, it remained overwhelmingly Christian, and in the absence of imperial oversight, its independence increased and the archbishop became the effective ruler of the area. By the 9th century there was a substantial colony of Frankish settlers established by
Emperor Charlemagne to facilitate
Christian pilgrimages. However, by the 10th century, as periodic Islamic persecution continued and the aura of Byzantine Imperial authority made a resurgence, the diocese fell under the influence of the
patriarch of Constantinople for protection and supervision and increasingly fell under Byzantine authority. St
Pamphilus of Caesarea devoted his life to searching out and obtaining ancient texts which he collected in the Library of Caesarea Maritima that
Jerome was later to use, and established a school for theological study. In the
scriptorium, a necessary adjunct to all libraries of
antiquity, he oversaw the production of accurate edited copies of
Scripture. Testimonies to his zeal and care in this work are to be found in the
colophons of biblical manuscripts. Jerome's
"De Viris Illustribus" (75) says that Pamphilus
"transcribed the greater part of the works of Origen of Alexandria with his own hand," and that
"these are still preserved in the library of Cæsarea." The collections of the library suffered during the persecutions under the Emperor
Diocletian, but were repaired subsequently by bishops of Caesarea. It was noted in the 6th century, but
Henry Barclay Swete was of the opinion that it probably did not long survive the capture of Caesarea by the
Saracens in 638, though a modern historian would attribute more destruction to its previous capture by the
Sassanid Persians. Following the
schism between
Constantinople and
Rome in 1054, the community was a
Greek Orthodox diocese, with only a marginal
Roman Catholic community. During the crusader period, the community became Catholic in 1101. The Frankish community vastly increased in size and a Latin archbishop was established. Under the crusaders, the diocese increased over time to having ten suffragan bishops, including the bishop of
Sebastea. During the remainder of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the
Latin patriarch of Jerusalem often served first as archbishop of Caesarea, or
of Tyre. There was a legend that the
Holy Grail had been discovered in Caesarea; the ancient chalice found there in 1101 was later taken to
Paris. Since 1975 and until 2012, Eastern Orthodox Metropolitan of Caesarea was
Basilios Blatsos, who was also an Exarch of Palaestina Prima, under the jurisdiction of the
Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. It is unknown who is the current metropolitan. ==List of bishops==