According to the
Menologion, Clement, a disciple of
Paul of Tarsus and one of the Seventy (
Philippians 4:3), was the first bishop of Sardis. whom some sources refer to as the second bishop of Sardis—citing the "improbability of seventy years in the episcopate"—making him the successor to the "
angel of the church of Sardis" referenced in the
New Testament (
Rev. 3:1-3), while other sources regard Melito himself as the "apostle" or "angel of the church of Sardis." In the
Book of Revelation,
Saint John writes a letter to the church of Sardis, reproaching it and its bishop. . From the
Madrid Skylitzes. The
Council of Rimini deposed Bishop Hortasius of Sardis in 359 because he had been ordained without the sanction of the bishops of Lydia. The See had 27
suffragan bishops (including the bishop of
Thyatira and
Philadelphia) in the 7th century, and approximately that number until the end of the 10th century. A 1959 landslide revealed several ecclesiastical artifacts and a throne that archaeologists postulated may have been used by the bishops of Sardis. The first systemic investigation of the ruins of Sardis came in 1910 with an expedition from
Princeton University. The Metropolitan of Sardis, who had once ranked sixth in precedence in the Eastern church, In 1369,
Philadelphia replaced Sardis as the see of the
metropolitan bishop, However, a bearer of the title of Metropolitan of Sardis, Dionysius, participated in the
Council of Florence in 1438, but died before its conclusion and thus was not asked to sign its decree. From the 17th century, there were appointments of
Roman Catholic archbishops of Sardis as a see
in partibus infidelium, meaning "within territory held by the infidels" (the Muslims), a term replaced in 1882 by that of "titular see". No new such appointments have been made to this eastern see since the
Second Vatican Council. ==Metropolitan bishops==