|
Hagia Sophia
undoubtedly is the mother church of all
Eastern Christians of the Byzantine
tradition either the Orthodox or the Greek Catholic. Ancient Historians'
records
show that in the first millennium, the site of Hagia Sophia had been the site of a pagan temple.
The first church on the site was built by the Eastern Roman Emperor
Constantius (Emperor
Constantine's son). The Hagia Sophia was consecrated in 360 AD. At first it
was known as the Great Church because it was the largest church of its time.
Later it became known as the Holy Wisdom, a name attributed by the
Christian Theologians.
In 404 AD the church
was destroyed by mobs set into action when Emperor Arcadius sent
Archbishop John Chrysostom into exile for his criticisms of the
Byzantine Empire. In 415 AD Emperor Theodosius rebuilt the Hagia Sophia.
The new Hagia Sophia, too, was rampaged
 by a mob at the time of Monophysite heretics in 531 AD. The
new Emperor Justinian, a firm believer of orthodoxy, ordered that construction begin on a new
basilica such as a one never seen before. The construction works
lasted from 532 to 537 AD and the new Hagia Sophia was consecrated by Patriarch
Menas on December 27, 537 AD.
Architecturally Hagia
Sophia represented a major revolution in church construction in
that the church had a huge dome which necessitated the implementation of
new ideas in order to support the weight of this huge dome, a feat which
had not been attempted before. In the days when there was no
steel to be used in construction, huge roofs and domes had to be supported by
massive pillars and walls. The dome of Hagia Sophia was supported by
four piers, each
pier measuring about 98 square meters at the base. Four arches swing across
linked by four pendentives. The apices of the arches and the pendentives support
the circular base from which rises the dome which is pierced by forty
single-arched windows which admit light to the interior.
 The church itself
measures 79 x 82 meters; the dome rises 64 meters above the floor and
has a diameter of 34 meters. The nave is 41 meters wide, more than twice
the width of the aisles which measure 19 meters. Because
Istanbul lies in an
earthquake-prone region, the massive structure of Hagia Sophia was
deemed sufficient to meet the threat. That expectation however was
disappointed when in later years earthquakes destroyed parts of Hagia
Sophia and the dome, requiring massive repairs including the construction of
large buttresses to support the walls which in turn held up the huge dome.
In 1204 AD, Roman
Catholic crusaders of the Fourth Crusade (to get Jerusalem back from the
muslims) attacked and sacked Istanbul
and Hagia Sophia, leaving behind a legacy of bitterness among
Eastern Christians which continues even to this day. For more
 than 1000 years
Hagia Sophia served as the cathedral church of Istanbul as well as the
church of the Byzantine court but this came to an end on May
29, 1453, when the Ottoman Turkish Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror (a nick
he received after conquering Istanbul and giving an end to the Byzantine
Empire) seized the Imperial City and converted Hagia Sophia into a mosque. It
remained a mosque until 1935 when
Mustafa Kemal
converted it into a museum.
In its most popular
days as the
Imperial Church, Hagia Sophia was served by 85 priests, 160 deacons, 65
subdeacons, 160 readers, 25 cantors and 80 doorkeepers. It was the model
for other Byzantine Churches throughout Eastern Christianity.
|
