Furnos was the name of two towns and bishoprics in the Roman province of Proconsular Africa (in present-day Tunisia). They are referred to as Furnos Maior and Furnos Minor, as now as separate Latin Catholic titular sees.
The ruins of Furnos Minor are at Henchir-El-Msaadine, near Tebourba (Ancient bishopric Thuburbo Minus) in modern Tunisia, North Africa
Furnos Maior may have been at what is now Aïn-Fournou or Aïn-Fourna, more distant from Carthage.
Each was important enough to become a suffragan bishopric of the African provincial capital's Metropolitan Archbishop of Carthage.
The towns and the bishoprics disappeared after the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, but their dioceses have been revived as titular sees.
There are records of early bishops of one or other of the two sees. Third-century Geminius died shortly before Saint Cyprian; a Donatist Florentinus attended a conference in 411; and a Simeon was at the 525 Council of Carthage. Simeon belonged to Furnos Maior, but it is uncertain of which town the other two were bishops.
Victor of Vita recounts that in the persecution by the Vandals of Genseric in 430 or 431 Bishop Mansuetus of Urusi was martyred by being burned alive at the gate of Urusi known as the Porta Fornitana, the 'Furnos Gate'.
The diocese was nominally restored as a Latin Catholic titular bishopric in 1914 under the name Furnos Majus (or Maius), which was changed to Furni Majus in 1925, Furnos Maior (or Major) in 1929, Fornos Major in 1933, ultimately Furnos Maior again in 1971.
It has had the following incumbents, all of the lowest (episcopal) rank :
José Anselmo Luque (1914.05.25 – 1930.04.05)
Julien-Marie Nouailles, Picpus Fathers (SS.CC.) (1932.04.26 – 1937.08.14)
Marcel-Auguste-Marie Grandin, Holy Ghost Fathers (C.S.Sp.) (1937.12.02 – 1947.08.04)
Thomas F. Quinlan (구 토마), Columban Missionaries (S.S.C.M.E.) (1955.09.20 – 1962.03.10)
René-Jean-Baptiste-Germain Feuga, Paris Foreign Missions Society (M.E.P.) (1962.11.20 – 1964.01.27)
Ismael Blas Rolón Silvero, Salesians (S.D.B.) (1965.10.20 – 1967.03.29), as Bishop-Prelate of Caacupé (Paraguay) (1960.08.02 – 1967.03.29), promoted first Bishop of the above Caacupé (1967.03.29 – 1970.06.16), later Metropolitan Archbishop of Asunción (Paraguay) (1970.06.16 – 1989.05.20), President of Episcopal Conference of Paraguay (1985 – 1989)
Michele Alagna Foderá, S.D.B. (1967.06.13 – 1978.05.26)
James Patterson Lyke, Friars Minor (O.F.M.) (1979.06.30 – 1990.07.10) as Auxiliary Bishop of Cleveland (USA) (1979.06.30 – 1990.07.10), later Metropolitan Archbishop of Atlanta (USA) (1991.04.30 – 1992.12.27)
Julio Enrique Prado Bolaños (1992.07.08 – 1995.02.02)
Héctor Sabatino Cardelli (1995.05.13 – 1998.05.02)
Jorge Eduardo Lozano (2000.01.04 – 2005.12.22)
Alessandro Carmelo Ruffinoni, Scalabrinians (C.S.) (2006.01.18 – 2010.06.16)
Agenor Girardi, Sacred Heart Missionaries (M.S.C.) (2010.12.22 – 2015.05.06)
Aliaksandr Yasheuski, S.D.B. (2015.06.09 – ...), Auxiliary Bishop of Minsk–Mohilev (Belarus).
It was nominally revived as a titular bishopric in 1933 and has had the following incumbents, of the lowest (episcopal, usually) and once intermediary (archiepiscopal) ranks :
Titular Archbishop Charles Journet (1965.02.15 – 1965.02.22), later Cardinal-Deacon of S. Maria in Portico (1965.02.25 – 1973.03.05), becoming Protodeacon of the Sacred College of Cardinals (1971.08.10 – 1973.03.05), promoted Cardinal-Priest still of S. Maria in Portico pro hac vice Title (1973.03.05 – 1975.04.15)
Titular Bishop Georges-Louis Mercier, White Fathers (M. Afr.) (1968.01.11 – 1976.10.13)
Titular Bishop Attilio Nicora (1977.04.16 – 1992.06.30) as Auxiliary Bishop of Milano (Italy) (1977.04.16 – 1987.02.11), later Bishop of Verona (Italy) (1992.06.30 – 1997.09.18), Vice-President of Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (2000 – 2002), Member of the Commission of Cardinals overseeing the Institute for Works of Religion (2002? – 2013.02.16), Archbishop ad personam (2002.10.01 – 2003.10.21), President of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (2002.10.01 – 2011.07.07), created Cardinal-Deacon of S. Filippo Neri in Eurosia (2003.10.21 [2003.12.13] – 2014.06.12), Pontifical Legate for the papal Basilicas of St. Francis and St. Mary of the Angels, both in Assisi (2006.02.21 – ...), President of the papal Financial Information Authority (2011.01.19 – 2014.01.30), promoted Cardinal-Priest of S. Filippo Neri in Eurosia pro hac vice Title (2014.06.12 – ...), Member of the College for the review of appeals by clergy accused of delicta graviora (2015.01.21 – ...)
Titular Bishop Henryk Marian Tomasik (1992.11.21 – 2009.10.16)
Titular Bishop William Terrence McGrattan (2009.11.06 – 2014.04.08)
Titular Bishop Ernesto Maguengue (2014.08.06 – ...), Auxiliary Bishop of Nampula (Mozambique)
