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Saint Sophia’s cathedral Constantinopolis and the last of the Romans
St Sophia’s cathedral in Constantinople.
Ecclesia Sanctae Sophia surrounded by minarets from where the muezzin calls the ‘faithful’ to prayer. The beautiful bells of St Sophia rendered silent.
After 200 years of pains taking construction St Sophia’s was finally built in 537 AD (that is nearly 1500 years ago), as the patriarchal cathedral for all the Christians of the east, in Constantinople. It was the mirror image of St Peter’s in Rome for the Christians of the west. After centuries of resistance to the Turks, Constaninople was finally taken in 1457. Many Christian women and children sought sanctuary in the cathedral but the exultant Turks slaughtered, crucified and raped these last of the Byzantines.
In 2020, under the direction of (Sultan-wannabe) Receo Tayyip Erdoğan, St Sophia’s was opened as mosque.. This was the final act in the long genocide of Christians in Turkey and of the wanton destruction of the remains of the 2000 year presence of Greek, Christian culture in Anatolia.
In 1915 there were still around 4 million Assyrian, Greek and Armenian Christians living in Turkey, around 25% of the population, including communities such as the Pontic Greeks who had been settled for 3000 years, since Homer. Now there are only a few thousand Christians left in Constantinople among 15 million Muslims. The genocide of Turkey’s Christians inspired Hitler to attempt to do the same to Europe’s Jews. The so-called Christian West did nothing to help the Christians of the East. Shame on us!!
