What is "titular see"

n. An episocopal see which has no resident bishop in a former diocese that no longer functions.

A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a " titular bishop", "titular metropolitan", or "titular archbishop".

The term is used to signify a diocese that no longer functionally exists, often because the diocese once flourished but the territory was conquered for Islam or no longer functions because of a schism. The Greek–Turkish population exchange of 1923 also contributed to titular bishoprics. The see of Maximianoupolis was destroyed along with the town that shared its name by the Bulgarians under Emperor Kaloyan in 1207; the town and the see were under the control of the Latin Empire, which took Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204.

Titular sees are also used to avoid causing offense or confusion when a bishop of one church serves its faithful in a place where he states no claim of jurisdiction over the faithful of another church dominant there.