According to the Catholic Encyclopaedia, it is the modern Ebba. (Abbah Quşūr?)
Pétridès says the town was situated on the highway from Carthage to Theveste (modern Tebessa), seven miles from Lares (now Lorbeus) and sixteen miles from Altiburus (Henshir Medina).
Werner Huß sees as the most likely location modern Henchir Bou Djaoua or Henchir Merkeb en-Nabi.[4]
History
Polybius mentions the town, under the name of Abba, as the place Syphax retreated to in the Second Punic War (218-201 BC) after Numidian king Masinissa and the Romans burned his camp near Utica,[5] and Livy mentions it as where Syphax linked up with a body of 4000 Celtiberian mercenaries raised by Carthage's Hasdrubal Barca.[6]
Felicissimus, a Donatist schismatic, intervening at the Council of Carthage called in 411 with both bishops of that heresy and Catholics, which had no incumbent for Obba
The diocese was nominally restored as circa 1890 as Latin titular bishopric of Obba (Latin = Curiate Italian) / Obben(sis) (Latin adjective).
It has had the following incumbents, albeit with some intervals, mostly of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank, with a single archiepiscopal exception, both secular and regular:
François-Xavier Corbet, Spiritans (C.S.Sp.) (French) (1898.07.05 – death 1914.07.25) as only Apostolic Vicar of Northern Madagascar (then French Madagascar) (1898.07.05 – 1913.05.20), (see) restyled first Vicar Apostolic of Diégo-Suarez (Madagascar) (1913.05.20 – 1914.07.25)
Léon-Charles-Joseph Girod, C.S.Sp. (French) (1915.01.13 – death 1919.12.13) as Apostolic Vicar of Loango (then French Congo(-Brazzaville)) (1915.01.13 – 1919.12.13)
Domenico Comin, Salesians (S.D.B.) (Italian) (1920.03.05 – 1963.08.17) as Apostolic Vicar of Méndez y Gualaquiza (Ecuador) (1920.03.05 – 1951.04.12), (see) restyled as first Apostolic Vicar of Méndez (Ecuador) (1951.04.12 – 1963.08.17)
Joseph Khiamsun Nittayo (1963.09.13 – 1965.12.18) first as Coadjutor Apostolic Vicar of Bangkok (Thailand) (1963.09.13 – 1965.04.29), then succeeding as last Apostolic Vicar of Bangkok (1965.04.29 – 1965.12.18); later (see) promoted first Metropolitan Archbishop of Bangkok (Thailand) (1965.12.18 – retired 1972.12.18), President of Bishops’ Conference of Thailand (1970 – 1973), died 1998
Jaime Lachica Sin (1967.02.10 – 1972.01.15) as Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Jaro (Philippines) (1967.02.10 – 1972.01.15); later Titular Archbishop of Massa Lubrense (1972.01.15 – 1972.10.08) as Coadjutor Archbishop of Jaro (1972.01.15 – 1972.10.08), succeeding as Metropolitan Archbishop of Jaro (1972.10.08 – 1974.01.21), transferred Metropolitan Archbishop of Manila (Philippines) (1974.01.21 – retired 2003.09.15), President of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (C.B.C.P.) (1976 – 1981), created Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria ai Monti (1976.05.24 – death 2005.06.21)
Erwin Hecht, Missionary Oblates (O.M.I.) (1972.02.03 – 1974.07.01) as Auxiliary Bishop of Diocese of Kimberley (South Africa) (1972.02.03 – 1974.07.01); next succeeded as Bishop of Kimberley (1974.07.01 – retired 2009.12.15), died 2016
BIOs to ELABORATE
Alberto Giraldo Jaramillo, Sulpicians (P.S.S.) (later Archbishop) (1974.08.08 – 1977.04.26)
Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 467
Stefano Antonio Morcelli, Africa christiana, Volume I, Brescia 1816, p. 248
J. Mesnage, L'Afrique chrétienne, Paris 1912, p.63
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