Ponsa
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Ponsa | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Bosnia | |
| Appointed | 1238 |
| Term ended | 1270/72 |
| Predecessor | John of Wildeshausen |
| Successor | Roland |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | 26 April 1238 by Theodoric of Cumania |
| Personal details | |
| Died | 1270/72 |
Ponsa or Pousa (Hungarian: Pósa;[1] Serbo-Croatian: Ponza, Понза or Povša, Повша) was a Hungarian-born Dominican friar who served as Bishop of Bosnia from 1238 to 1270 (or 1272). He was appointed by Pope Gregory IX in an effort to combat the autonomous Bosnian Church, but found no support in Bosnia. He fled the country in the 1240s, never to return.
Ponsa was born in the Kingdom of Hungary.[2] Prior to his rise to the episcopate, Ponsa was a leading superior of the Dominican friars' missionary activities to the territory of the neighboring Cuman tribes.[3] He was appointed Bishop of Bosnia in the midst of the Bosnian Crusade. The crusade's stated objective was to purge Bosnia from heresy, in other words to exterminate the autonomous Bosnian Church.[4] His predecessor, the German-born Dominican John of Wildeshausen, repeatedly requested to be relieved of the bishopric, and in 1238 Pope Gregory IX wrote that the crusade was a success and that he had selected Ponsa as the new bishop.[5] The pope called Ponsa as "virtous and thoughtful in spiritual and secular matters" in his letter to Theodoric, Bishop of Cumania.[2] Ponsa was also to be assigned jurisdiction over Zachlumia, but probably only its western part, as the rest belonged to Serbia.[4]