Constantine XI
Today is the anniversary of the Fall of Constantinople. On May 29, 1453 Ottoman Janissaries breached the Theodosian walls and killed everyone in their path. Emperor Constantine XI cast off his purple cloak and made a last stand with his remaining soldiers. He was killed in the melee.
The once capital of the greatest Christian empire had now become the capital of the most successful Islamic empire in history. All of the Catholics in the city, mostly Venetians, were killed. Most of the Greeks had been captured and sold off as slaves with the exception of a few rich ones who were able to pay them off.
Everyone knows that the glorious Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque. Statues were destroyed, iconography painted over, and on June 1 it was opened for Islamic prayers. A very low point in Christian history.
I just want to look at the city of Constantinople as a difference in how Christianity and Islam spread. Originally named Byzantium, the city was a small pagan city in the Roman Empire. Constantine made it his new capital. He built many churches since it was meant to be a Christian city.
Eventually it became a mostly Christian city. It became a Christian city by choice, it became an Islamic city by imperialism, theft, and enslavement. While the emperor Constantine bears the name of the city, it’s a bit fitting that the last Christian emperor of the city had the same name, Constantine XI.
Constantine was a Catholic ruler. While few of the laity or clergy believed in the Union of Florence, the emperor is one of the few who did. On May 28, the Orthodox and Catholic Christians of the city celebrated a final Christian liturgy together in the Hagia Sophia. The chants were both in Latin and Greek. The next day and everyday forward it would hear only the Arabic call to prayer. A building built by Greek people, for Greek people, on Greek land, with Greek money. Stolen by savage imperialists who knew nothing about true monotheism. The other churches of Constantinople inherited the same fate in the years to come. By the end of the 16th century, only three churches remained inside the walls of Constantinople. Three churches in this once capital of Christendom.
May the holy Emperor Constantine XI Rest In Peace. May his prayers in heaven intercede and help those in need. The man is truly an inspiration to me. He wouldn’t let himself outlive his empire. He fought as a common soldier at the breach in the wall.
Then you have Sultan Mehmed II who is one of the most evil men who ever lived. He spent his entire life invading Christian lands with his ultimate goal of taking the city of Rome, which would presumably have been mutilated like Constantinople. The movie Fetih 1453 is about his conquest of Constantinople. It’s full of lies and embellishments because even the Turks are ashamed of this monster. I expose that in the video I came out with today. Enjoy!
Excellent!
Good job Allan!
I have been in several of those churches that were turned into Mosques or museums.
Hagia Irene – was used as an armory depot for centuries inside the walls of the Topkapi palace. It was were the 2nd Ecumenical Council was held in 381 AD. No minarets.
Been in St. Chora church – amazing mosaics. It has a minaret but in recent years has been a museum for tourism.
The Fatih Cami in the area called “Fatih” (conqueror, named after Mehmet II) replaced “the church of the Holy Apostles” after they destroyed it (it also had John Chrysostom’s coffin and relics in it – they carried them away to Europe) – I have been there and meditated in the courtyard nearby, in 1994.
of course several times been to the Hagia Sophia – 1987, 1993-1995, 2000, 2010, 2014
sorry, some of his relics were taken to Rome during Crusader period. the painting below says it is the return of his relics TO the church of the Holy Apostles, but that church was destroyed by the Turks after 1453, and his relics are scattered in difference places now. Complicated. Some are back in the place that the Turks allow for the Greek patriarch. (St. George’s Cathedral, Fener)
I tried to find remains of where Chalcedon was held, but I could not find it. (in Kadikoy, Istanbul) There is a small Greek Orthodox Church there, but I could not find anyone with knowledge as to where the Council was held.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Menologion_of_Basil_061.jpg
“When Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, the Holy Apostles briefly became the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church. Three years later the edifice, which was in a dilapidated state, was abandoned by the Patriarch, and in 1461 it was demolished by the Ottomans to make way for the Fatih Mosque.[3]”
This is part of early Islam – churches were not allowed to be repaired and eventually, the people & populations were worn down by the pressures of Jiziye tax and Dhimmi unjust principles, so they left.
Hey Ken,
Thanks for the feedback. I haven’t been to Istanbul myself but my parents have been. If you watch the video that I made on Youtube I talk about the major churches that were converted. Lord willing they’ll be churches one day again.
God bless,
Allan