Panagia of the Stable in Nichori of the Bosphorus

Churches, chapels and holy springs are scattered throughout the length and breadth of Constantinople and its suburbs. Many of them with a great historical background, some in full connection with the rise and fall of Roman civilization and other modest ones that await the pilgrim to visit them.

Nichori (or Neochori, known today as Yeniköy) is located on the European shores of the Bosphorus strait, between the neighborhoods of İstinye and Tarabya. Nichori was until the 1955 Istanbul pogrom a neighborhood with a considerable Greek (Roman) population as well as Armenian and Jewish communities. It was here behind the yali of Ahmed Afif Pasha, where Agatha Christie stayed as a guest in 1933 while writing Murder on the Orient Express. There are several Christian churches in the neighborhood. The Greek Orthodox Church of Dormition of the Theotokos (Panayia Kumariotisa Rum Ortodoks Kilisesi) was built in 1837 at the request of Sultan Mahmud II′s personal physician Stephanos Karatheodoris.

How a Miracle of the Mother of God Prevented the Fall of Constantinople on August 24, 1422

John Kananos was a Roman/Byzantine historian who lived during the first half of the 15th century. Kananos wrote a "a vivid eyewitness account" of the failed siege of Constantinople by the Ottomans under Sultan Murad II in 1422, the penultimate of four attempts on the city by the Ottomans. He attributes the survival of Constantinople to the miraculous intervention of the Mother of God on 24 August, when he says even the Ottomans saw her on the ramparts. The defeat was disastrous for the Ottomans.

The Roman Emperor was Manuel II Palaiologos. In July 1422, 10,000 Ottomans began looting the outskirts of Constantinople under the orders of Sultan Murad II. According to John Kananos, they started raping women, killing men and circumcising children. This was the vanguard of a huge army, which came a few days later. An army of 200,000 Ottomans was at the gates.

The Causes of the Fall of Constantinople, According to Joseph Bryennios

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The fall of Constantinople on May 29, 1453 was the culmination of the declining glory of the Roman Empire, the so-called Byzantium. Much has been written about the causes of this fall, which presents the situation in which the Roman Empire-Byzantium was at that time, since all of Asia Minor and Eastern Thrace was lost and only Constantinople and its environs remained. The occasional enemies had inflicted great damage, culminating in a final blow by the Frankish occupation of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade on April 13, 1204. After a few years (1261) its recapture and liberation offered nothing really substantial, because the city was already destroyed and completely looted.

Apart from the political and social causes that contributed to the fall of Constantinople, special mention should be made of the spiritual causes to which we usually do not pay much attention.

The American Historian Who Testified to the Existence of the Grave of Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos

Edwin Augustus Grosvenor was born in 1845 in West Newbury, Massachusetts. After graduating from Amherst College in 1867, he served as a tutor at Robert College in Constantinople, which was then under the Ottoman Empire. After returning to the U.S., he obtained an M.A. from Amherst College and was ordained as a minister in Newburyport in 1872. That same year, Edwin Grosvenor returned to Robert College with his new wife and began teaching. Grosvenor then taught at Amherst College from 1892 to 1914, and was professor emeritus until his death in 1936. Today the house where he lived in Amherst is a sorority house of the college that bears his name.

Grosvenor was called "one of the most cosmopolitan of Americans" by author and abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson. His son, Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, was the first employee and longtime editor of National Geographic Magazine, as well as the son-in-law of Alexander Graham Bell.

The Fall of Constantinople, 1453

By Dionysios Hatzopoulos

When, at the age of twenty-one, Mehmed II (1451-1481) sat on the throne of the Ottoman Sultans his first thoughts turned to Constantinople. The capital was all that was left from the mighty Christian Roman Empire and its presence, in the midst of the dominions of the powerful new rulers of the lands of Romania, was pregnant with danger. The new Sultan demonstrated diplomatic abilities, during his early attempts to isolate politically the Byzantine capital, when he signed treaties with the Emperor's most important Western allies, the Hungarians and the Venetians. He knew, however, that these were temporary measures, which would provide him with freedom of movement for a limited time only. To give the final blow on the half-dead body of the Byzantine Empire he had to move fast. He was so much preoccupied by his project of conquest that, according to the contemporary Greek Historian Michael Dukas, his mind was occupied by it day and night. A successful expedition against his enemy Ibrahim the Emir of Karamania, in central Asia Minor, postponed briefly his plans. He was back in his capital Hadrianople in May 1451, where he set in motion his great project. The first step was to isolate the Byzantine capital, both economically and militarily. Already, during the winter of 1451 he began recruiting competent builders, familiar with military works and fortifications, whose mission would be to build a powerful fortress on the Bosphorus. Its construction, supervised by the Sultan, began in the middle of April 1452. Built on the European side, at the narrowest point of the strait, called initially the Cutter of the throat (Boghaz-kesen), it became eventually known as Rumeli Hisar. It was a huge complex of strong fortifications whose task was to shut completely, by its artillery, to Western and Byzantine vessels the route to and from the Black Sea. The new fortress complemented the one that had been built on the Anatolian shore, at the time of Sultan Bayazid I (1389-1402), about six miles south of Constantinople, which was known as Anadolu Hisar. The presence of the two fortresses made clear to everyone that the Sultan was the real master of the straits. From now on, all ships intending to enter the Black Sea had to pay tolls. If they refused they would be sank. Indeed, near the end of 1452 a Venetian vessel attempted to pass without paying the required tolls. It was sank by the new fortress's guns, its crew of thirty men was taken prisoner. The officers and sailors were brought to the Sultan, who ordered their immediate execution. The act was rightly interpreted by the Venetian and Genoese governments as an indication of hostilities soon to break. However, despite all the indications and the realization that a new siege of Constantinople was to begin at any moment, the two Italian Republics, under political and economic pressures at home, reacted without much enthusiasm.

Holy Spring of Saint Sebastian in Constantinople

 

Saint Sebastian is especially revered at the holy spring that bears his name, which is located next to the Church of Saint Demetrios in Sarmasik, Istanbul.

During the centuries before the Fall of the Queen City in 1453, the memory of the Saint was honored with brilliance, where many people found a cure to their mental and physical ailments. Due to the destruction of the city, the holy water was seized and destroyed. But the Saint at the beginning of the nineteenth century appeared in a vision to a woman and indicated to her the place and existence of the holy spring.

The Incorrupt Relics of the Holy Empress Theophano at the Phanar

 

The Holy Empress Theophano was the pious wife of Emperor Leo VI the Wise, who reposed at the age of 31 around the year 894 after she dedicated her life to God as a nun. Her husband considered her to be a Saint, and as a memorial to her he built the Church of Saint Theophano next to the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, probably within a year after her death. When Theophano died, her body was likely placed in the Church of the Holy Apostles then transferred to the adjoining Church of Saint Theophano. However, certain bishops objected to Leo building a church dedicated to his wife, so Leo was forced to change the name of this church, which he then dedicated to All Saints, so as to still include his wife as one of many Saints that could be commemorated there. 

 

The Veneration of Saint Mamas in Constantinople

Saint Mamas is for modern people a relatively unknown saint, although he was martyred at a very young age (15 or 18 years old) in Caesarea, a great Christian center of Asia Minor, during the reign of Emperor Aurelian (270-275), and has been venerated since early Christian times. The earliest iconographic type of the Saint appears in Cappadocia: Saint Mamas depicted full length riding a lion with an upright tail striding to the right.

The veneration of Saint Mamas was transferred to Constantinople in the 5th century. By the second half of the 5th century, a suburb was already named after the Saint. In 469, Emperor Leo I found refuge there for six months, at the east side of the city (today Beşiktaş), during a conflagration in Constantinople. He built a palace, harbor, hippodrome, and a church dedicated to the Saint.

The Cholera Epidemic of Constantinople in 1871 and the Holy Zoni of the Panagia

In the year 1871 the city of Constantinople was plagued by a cholera epidemic that had traveled south from Russia and left thousands dead. In November, Patriarch Anthimos VI and the Holy Synod, after prayer, addressed a letter to the Holy Monastery of Vatopaidi on Mount Athos in order to bring the sacred relic of the Holy Zoni to the City to bring the grace and the blessing of the Panagia to the people under trial. The cholera was raging and the people had no other hope than the Panagia.

The Patriarch was aware of the history of the Holy Zoni, how it helped eradicate plagues before, and out of paternal care for the mental, but also the physical health and salvation of his spiritual children in Constantinople, and in order to drive away the plague of cholera, he corresponded with Vatopaidi Monastery, so that the Holy Zoni can be transported quickly and by steamer, since its most obvious miraculous power had been ascertained many times and in difficult circumstances and on the basis of indisputable testimonies and proofs.

A Video Tour of Hagia Sophia After It Reopened From the Pandemic and Before It Became a Mosque (Filmed on June 7, 2020)

Chora Monastery in Constantinople Resource Page

Saint Theodore, Founder of the Monastery of Chora

A Guide to Chora Monastery

Virtual Tour of Chora Monastery (Kariye Museum) with Şerif Yenen

The Journey to Bethlehem in Chora

Historic and Revered Chora Church in Istanbul Officially Violated By Being Converted to a Mosque

Consecration of the Church of the Theotokos Eleousa in Constantinople

Pantocrator Monastery in Istanbul. From left to right, one can see the apses of the Church of Christ Pantocrator, the Imperial Chapel and the Church of the Theotokos Eleousa.

On this day, the 11th day of August, we celebrate the Consecration of the revered and most-beautiful house and divine Temple of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos Eleousa.

We have no other specific information about this church. It may perhaps refer to the northern church of the Monastery of the Pantocrator (currently the Zeyrek Mosque). Between 1118 and 1124 the Roman Empress Irene of Hungary built a monastery dedicated to Christ Pantocrator. The monastery consisted of a main church (katholikon) also dedicated to Christ Pantocrator, a library and a hospital. After the death of his wife, shortly after 1124, Emperor John II Komnenos built another church to the north of the first dedicated to the Theotokos Eleousa ("the merciful Mother of God"). This church was open to the population and served by a lay clergy.

Consecration of the Church of the Monastery of Pantocrator in Constantinople

On this day (4th of August) we commemorate the Consecration of the very beautiful and divine Temple, of the royal Monastery of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ the Pantocrator, in Constantinople.

Verses

Modeled beautifully after the old laws,
You are welcomed with discourses of consecration.

The Monastery of Christ Pantocrator is located on the fourth hill of Constantinople overlooking the Golden Horn, east of the Church of the Holy Apostles and north of the Aqueduct of Valens. Built between 1118-1136, it was a large monastic complex with a hospital. It is possible that the nearby Şeyh Süleyman Mosque was once part of the complex, perhaps serving as its library. There are also several cisterns in the vicinity, including the prominent is Unkapanı Cistern. At one time it held more than a dozen tombs of Byzantine/Roman emperors.

Consecration of the Temple of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos at the Diakonissa

Floorplan of the Beyazit Churches A, B, C

On July 28th the Orthodox Church commemorates the Consecration of the Temple of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos at the Diakonissa. Diakonissi, or Diakonissa, was a district of Constantinople, within the city walls, west of the Beyazit Gate. Saint Olympia the Deaconess had hermitages built in this area, which were consumed by fire in 465, and again in 533 during the Nika Riots. These hermitages housed the one hundred Deaconesses that served in the Great Church. Patriarch Kyriakos II, around the year 598/99, built the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos in Diakonissi, for his sister, who lived in this area as a Deaconess of the Great Church. Because of its association with Deaconesses, the district received its name. In the eleventh century it is also reported that the Theotokos Church had an elementary school. The Church of the Theotokos is likely today the ruins of Church B of the Beyazit Churches. Their ruins are currently located under some of the buildings of Istanbul University.

Fragment of the piscina of Church B

The British Intended for Hagia Sophia To Be a Church Again in 1918

By Nikos Chiladakis

The important revelation that after the occupation of Constantinople on November 13, 1918 by the Allied troops of the Entente, the British intended to return Hagia Sophia to the Christians of the city but at the last moment they took a step back, was made by the Turkish newspaper Zaman on 6/30/2013. One realizes that if such a thing happened and if the cross would have again dominated majestically atop the dome of Hagia Sophia, this would be an event of great historical, symbolic and psychological significance and would decisively affect the final return of the city into Greek hands. The reappearance of the cross on the dome of Hagia Sophia would be one of the biggest historical blows for the Turks and would trigger the evacuation of the city from the Islamic element, as the Allied troops estimated at the time, according to the Turkish newspaper.

Saint Raphael and the Uniate Liturgy in Hagia Sophia

According to the revelations of the newly-revealed martyr Saint Raphael, he was in Constantinople as an Archimandrite with his Deacon Nicholas at the time when there was a false union between Emperor Constantine Palaiologos and the Pope of Rome. On December 12, 1452 a Joint-Liturgy took place in Hagia Sophia with Cardinal Isidore (the Pope’s emissary) present. Emperor Constantine was under the illusion, out of his desperation, that the Pope would send help from the West to drive the Ottomans away from the region and prevent them from capturing Constantinople.

How Hagia Sophia Became a Museum in 1934

Thomas Whittemore in front of Hagia Sophia

For almost a thousand years Hagia Sophia in Constantinople served as a house of worship for Orthodox Christians, until 1453 when the City fell to the Ottomans and Hagia Sophia became a house of worship for Muslims. Despite the majority of the population of Turkey being Muslim, the first president of the newly-established Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, turned Hagia Sophia into a museum in 1934.

There were at least three primary factors for Ataturk making Hagia Sophia a museum. First, it was very expensive to maintain. In 1934, Hagia Sophia was on the verge of falling into ruin, being a neglected dump. According to Ataturk, this was because he didn't have the funds to renovate it. If it became a museum, however, then the funds would allow for its renovation. Second, the Balkan Pact was a treaty signed by Greece, Turkey, Romania and Yugoslavia on 9 February 1934 in Athens, aimed at maintaining the geopolitical status quo in the region following World War I. To present a united front against Bulgarian designs on their territories, the signatories agreed to suspend all disputed territorial claims against each other and their immediate neighbors which followed in the aftermath of the war and a rise in various regional ethnic minority tensions. Ataturk thought that the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a museum would be seen as a favor to the Greeks and would help save the Balkan Pact. Third, the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a museum would be seen by Europeans and the West as a form of diplomacy and progressivism on the part of the Turkish Republic, which was surrounded by Orthodox Christian countries such as Greece, Bulgaria and Russia that viewed Hagia Sophia as part of its own inheritance. By inching closer towards the values held dear by the West, Turkey could also profit by becoming more European.

The Holy Spring of the Twelve Apostles in Constantinople

The Holy Spring of the Twelve Apostles in Constantinople is one of hundreds of holy springs in the Queen City, though it is one of the few that can be found outside of a church, on private property, that still functions.

In Constantinople, almost every church has a holy spring which is dedicated to another saint from the one commemorated in the main church and celebrates its own feast separately. The most significant holy springs in the City are in Panagia Blachernae, Panagia Vefa and Saint Demetrios in Xerokrini. The most famous of these holy springs is Zoodochos Pege in Balukli. Besides these, which are well known, there are hundreds of others that can be found even in homes, stores and private spaces. These sacred springs in the City were unique to the Orthodox Church, with none belonging to the Armenians. An exception is Sulu Manastır (Water Monastery), which is an Armenian church with a holy spring, however this shrine is built over the historic Monastery of Panagia Peribleptos from the 11th century, which was forcibly removed from the Romans of the City and given to the Armenians by the Ottomans.

Virtual Tour of Hagia Sophia with Şerif Yenen

By Şerif Yenen

Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya), dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World" by historians, is one of the most visited places in the world in terms of art and architecture history. Hagia Sophia was a Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal basilica (church) for 916 years, later an imperial mosque for 481 years, and now a museum for 85 years.

We feel very lucky to have Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. Can you imagine, how many other 1500-year-old monuments with the roof still on top, there are around the world?

Virtual Tour of Chora Monastery (Kariye Museum) with Şerif Yenen

By Şerif Yenen

Well, lockdown measures may not allow you to travel and visit places of interest. However, I will continue bringing some of them to you. My online cultural tour will be in the Chora Church or Kariye Museum this time. The tour is in English. My virtual guided tour will soon be available on YouTube. You can also ask questions during the tour.

Let me emphasize that this is not in a documentary format, but a guided tour. I will be interpreting and summerising Chora with breathtaking images and videos.