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May 30, 2015

The Mysterious Paschal Liturgy in Hagia Sophia in the Year 1522


"In this year (1522) God showed a sign seen in the city of Constantine on the great Sunday of Pascha. At midnight the dervishes awoke and went to Hagia Sophia, to say their salawat prayers as was their custom. And entering the courtyard of the temple they heard chanting; and they also saw a great light in the temple, and approaching it they found the gates opened and the sound of chanting, singing Christ Is Risen. Upon hearing this they immediately informed the master, so that he physically came, and heard and saw with his eyes, and called out to go up there to see if this was taking place by people. And straightway the light diminished with the chanting. And he rushed to cut off the Christians, but Piri Mehmed Pasha again prevented the onslaught."

The anonymous Chronicon Breve which lists important historical events until 1523, and written around this time, records a mysterious Paschal Liturgy in the Temple of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople which became known to the Turks and to Sultan Suleiman, that angered him so much that it almost caused a slaughter of Christians if it was not for the intervention of his advisor, Grand Vizier Piri Mehmed Pasha. It seems that it was believed the Liturgy of the Resurrection took place in a divine and wondrous manner.