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About the Great Church

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The church of Hagia Sophia, associated with one of the greatest creative ages of man, had also been identified with the Ecumenical Patriarchate for more than one thousand years. Originally known as the Great Church, because of its large size in comparison with the other churches of the Capital, it was later given the name of Hagia Sophia, the Holy Wisdom of the Logos, i.e. of Christ, the second hypostasis of the Holy Trinity. The ecclesiastical historian Socrates writes epigrammatically: Emperor Constantius "built the Great Church, now called Sophia built the great churchnow called sophia ". Since the church was dedicated to Christ, Christmas was a day of special celebrations. With the passing of centuries, the designation Great Church acquired a wider spiritual significance: it included the entire Orthodox Church and was identified with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which is titled "the Great Church of Christ". The church of Hagia Sophia is believed to have been founded by Constantine the Great. The initial building was erected over the ruins of an ancient temple of Apollo, situated on a hill commanding a magnificent view of the Sea of Marmara.

The primary church

Only scant information is available on this first, timber-roofed, Hagia Sophia. The historian Socrates, writing in 440 his ecclesiastical history of the years 305 to 439, attributes the completion of the church in 360 to Constantius II (337-361), son of Constantine the Great. The passage reads:

"..... at that time the king was building the Great Church, the one now called Sophia, adjoining it to that named Eirene...".

The proximity and relation of the two churches is obvious. The consecration ceremony was conducted by the Patriarch Eudoxius (360-370), in 360.

The Second Period

The Second Ecumenical Council was convened in Hagia Sophia in 381, during the reign of Theodosius I (378-395). Some twenty years later, on 20 June 404, the people angered by the banishment of John Chrysostom burned down the church . Rebuilt by Theodosius II (408-450) and consecrated in 415, the church was again burnt to the ground by the rioting crowds during the Nika Revolt (15 January 532).

Final Look

After the repression of the frightful revolt, Ioustinian conceived the grandiose project of rebuilding the Great Church from its foundations. This time it was to be built on plans well in advance of the times, using new daring vaulting techniques and statics. The men for the task were available. The mathematician Anthemius of Tralles and the architect Isidorus of Miletus worked with imagination and scientific accuracy to create a new design and build a masterpiece that stands unique throughout the centuries. Nothing like it was ever built before or after.

Anthemius and Isidorus had at their disposal a very large number of specialized craftsmen: technicians, masons, marble-carvers and many others. They were given a wide choice of building materials. The marble workshops of the empire, those of the Proconnesian islands, of Athens, Paros and Thessaly, furnished a variety of colored marble. Marble members from ancient sanctuaries (Delphi, Rome, Ephesus, Egypt) were skillfully re-used in the new edifice. Construction works lasted five years (532 537) and on 27 December 537, Patriarch Menas (536-552) consecrated the magnificent church. Some scholars maintain that construction was completed in 20 years, that thousands of crafts men were employed and that the church was consecrated in 552, in the patriarchy of Eutychius (552-565).

latin barbarians occupy the City

At this point we would add the following historical evidence, which we believe will be found interesting. Written sources refer to "the number of clerics appointed to the service of the most holy Great Church of Constantinople". The records list a total of 600 persons assigned to serve in Hagia Sophia: 80 priests, 150 deacons, 40 deaconesses, 70 subdeacons, 160 readers, 25 chanters, 75 door keepers. Another source reveals the extent of destruction and pillage which Constantinople suffered in the hands of the Crusaders after 1204 and the difficulties that the great church had to face from the 13th century onwards. Paspatis writes: "In 1396, during the patriarchy of Callistus 11, a note was made in the second volume of patriarchal documents (Miklosich-Muller) listing all the existing gold and silver sacred vessels, hieratic vestments, crosses, gospel-books and holy relics. The destitution of the celebrated church, looted by the Latin Crusaders becomes evident. I mention the most important objects, from which pillagers removed pearls and other ornaments of gold in later times. The church had nine gospel-books, two of which remained in the church for the use of the priests, while the other seven, much adorned with representations of embossed gold, were kept in the Skeuophylakion; five craters ...fourteen patens and chalices, six lavides (spoons); six silver asterisks; four candelabra by the entrance; sixteen ripidia (fans); eight crosses containing splinters of the True Cross and adorned with gold, silver and pearls; four aers (large veils); twenty-six chalice veils and four patriarchal staffs; also, a few icons, hieratic vestments and some relics of saints that had escaped the rapacious Crusaders ...".

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