Capra was an ancient Roman–Berber town in the province of Mauretania Caesariensis. The civitas was located in the present-day area of Béni Mansour and Béni Abbès, Algeria. It was a bishopric in the Roman Catholic Church.
Ecclesiastical history Victor Vitensis speaks of Capra Picta as a town in that province, where some Catholics sent there into exile under the Arian Genseric, king of the Vandals from 428 to 477, converted a great number of the local population to Christianity.Stefano Antonio Morcelli, Africa christiana, Volume I, Brescia 1816, pp. 117–118
In the Notitia Provinciarum et Civitatum Africae,Johann Peter Kirsch, "Notitia Provinciarum et Civitatum Africae" in Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1911) Primus, bishop of the church in Capra, appears in the list of the Catholic bishops whom Huneric summoned to Carthage in 484 and then exiled.Notitia Provinciarum et Civitatum AfricaePius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 464
Titular see No longer a residential bishopric, Capra is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), p. 858
The ancient diocese was nominally restored in 1933 and since had the following incumbents, both of the lowest (episcopal) or intermediary (archiepiscopal) ranks : Titular bishop Alain Sauveur Ferdinand van Gaver, Paris Foreign Missions Society M.E.P. (1965.03.22 – 1965.12.18) Titular archbishop Joseph Floribert Cornelis, Benedictine Order (O.S.B.) (1967.04.13 – 1974.11.13) Titular bishop Hieronymus Herculanus Bumbun, Capuchin Friars (O.F.M. Cap.) (1975.12.19 – 1977.02.26) (later Archbishop) Titular bishop Anatole Milandou (1983.07.22 – 1987.10.03) (later Archbishop) Titular bishop Camillus Archibong Etokudoh (1988.01.18 – 1989.09.01) Titular bishop Joseph Shipandeni Shikongo, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (O.M.I.) (1994.03.14 – ...), Apostolic Vicar of Rundu (Namibia)
References
Sources and external links GigaCatholic with incumbent biography links