How many Church councils/synods took place at Hagia Sophia

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jobin
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

Jobin

Guest
How many official church council or meetings took place at the Hagia Sophia
 
GioG12 said:
Holy Church held the Seventh Ecumenical Council
Click to expand...
The Hagia Sophia in Nicaea where the 7th Ecumenical Council assembled is a different church from that of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.

So far as I know there were only two councils that were held in the Constantinopolitan Hagia Sophia and are recognised by the Catholic Church:
  • Second Council of Constantinople (553) [Also the Fifth Ecumenical Council]
  • Fourth Council of Constantinople (869-870) [This is to be distinguished from the other Fourth Council of Constantinople 879-880 which is not recognised by the Catholic Church but by the Eastern Orthodox]
Other Constantinopolitan councils were generally convened either at the Imperial Palace or in the Hagioi Apostoloi (’[Church of the] Holy Apostles’).
 
Kind of out of topic, but you’re asking this while Hagia Sophia officially being reinstated as mosque there. Just a heads up.
 
I need some solid facts. I’m preparing a video against the move .
 
We are not to keep silent. We need to dig up the Christian history of the church. History is being rewritten wrongly. We had to show the world the truth.
 
Can you give me more facts about the Christian history of the Hagia Sophia
 
I believe there is the internet for that @Jobin.
 
Last edited:
THE HISTORY OF HAGIA SOPHIA
  1. THE CHURCH WAS TWICE DESTROYED BY RIOTS.
First built in Constantinople in 360 CE and dedicated by the Roman Emperor Constantius II (son of Constantine, the founder of Constantinople), the initial, wood-constructed Hagia Sophia burned during a series of riots in 404 CE. In 415 AD, Emperor Theodosius II ordered the church rebuilt, but the Nika Revolt in 532 AD caused widespread death and destruction in the city, and the church was wiped out a second time.
  1. THE FIRST GREAT BYZANTINE RULER ORDERED ITS RECONSTRUCTION.
Located in the Eastern Roman Empire region known as Byzantium, Constantinople was ruled for 38 years by the Emperor Justinian, starting in 527 AD. Five years after the Nika Revolt and the church’s destruction, Justinian inaugurated the newly rebuilt Hagia Sophia, the most important religious structure in his empire, on December 27, 537 AD.
  1. THE CHURCH HAS GONE BY SEVERAL NAMES.
Initially called the Great Church (Megale Ekklesia in Greek, Magna Ecclesia in Latin) because of its immense size, the second incarnation of the church came to be known by the name Hagia Sophia around 430 AD. Its Greek meaning, “Holy Wisdom,” remained after the church was rebuilt a century later. After conquest by the Ottomans it was called Ayasofya, and today it is the Ayasofya Müzesi.
  1. THE ORIGINAL DOME WAS REPLACED AFTER AN EARTHQUAKE IN 558 AD.
Soaring 160 feet high, with a diameter of 131 feet, the grand feature of the Hagia Sophia was its large central dome. The dome and the church were designed by architects Anthemios of Tralles and Isidoros of Miletos, but unlike the dome of the Pantheon, which has never faltered, an earthquake in 558 AD caused the Hagia Sophia’s dome to collapse. It was rebuilt to a height of 182 feet, and the walls were reinforced in 562 AD. The dome’s weight is supported by a series of smaller domes, arcades, and four large arches.
  1. ONE OF THE SEVEN ANCIENT WONDERS WAS USED IN THE CHURCH’S CONSTRUCTION.
To fortify (and beautify) the interior of the church, columns from the long-abandoned and destroyed Temple of Artemis in Ephesus were used for the Hagia Sophia. Additional building materials may also have come from ancient sites in Baalbeck and Pergamom.
 
Last edited:
  1. IT’S A GREAT EXAMPLE OF BYZANTINE ART AND ARCHITECTURE.
Byzantium nurtured a centuries-long tradition of art, architecture, knowledge, theology, and literature in a style that fused Greek, Roman, and other Eastern traditions. Long after the decline of the Roman Empire from which it sprang, the Byzantine ruler Justinian spearheaded a series of urban reconstruction projects following the Nika Revolt and started with the Hagia Sophia. The new cathedral included the massive dome atop a rectangular basilica, abundant mosaics that covered nearly every surface, stone inlays, columns and pillars of marble, bronze doors, a marble door, a large cross at the dome’s apex, and a square area on the floor of the nave, paved in marble, called the omphalion, a place where emperors were crowned.
  1. ICONOCLASM LED TO THE REMOVAL OF MANY PIECES OF ART
Meaning “image breaking” or “the smashing of images,” the period of iconoclasm (from about 726-787 AD and 815-843 AD) raged when the state banned the production or use of religious images, leaving the cross as the only acceptable icon. Many mosaics and paintings from the Hagia Sophia were destroyed, taken away, or plastered over.
  1. A 90-YEAR-OLD, BLIND VENETIAN ONCE CAPTURED HAGIA SOPHIA.
During the Fourth Crusade in 1203 AD, Alexius IV managed to convince the Crusaders to help him take the throne of the Byzantine Empire in exchange for a series of promises and rewards. But just months later, he was murdered in a palace coup. The powerful Doge Enrico Dandolo, the chief magistrate of the Republic of Venice who was over 90 years old and blind, led the Latin Christians on a siege of Constantinople. The city and the church were sacked and desecrated, many golden mosaics were taken back to Italy, and Dandolo was buried at Hagia Sophia after his death in 1205 AD.
  1. THE CHURCH BECAME A MOSQUE FOR 500 YEARS.
Centuries of sackings, conquests, sieges, raids, and crusades came to an end in 1453 AD with the fall of Constantinople at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, led first by Sultan Murad II and then his successor, Mehmed II. The city was renamed Istanbul, the church was looted for treasures, and Mehmed called for a restoration of the 900-year-old building and its conversion into a mosque.
  1. A MULTITUDE OF ISLAMIC FEATURES WERE ADDED TO THE BUILDING.
To use the space as a mosque, the rulers ordered that a mihrab (prayer niche), minbar (pulpit), and a fountain for ablutions be added to the Hagia Sophia. A succession of minarets was added to the exterior, and a school, kitchen, library, mausoleums, and sultan’s lodge joined the site over the centuries.
  1. THE SULTAN PROTECTED CHRISTIAN MOSAICS
Instead of destroying the numerous frescoes and mosaics on the Hagia Sophia walls, Mehmed II ordered they be whitewashed in plaster and covered in Islamic designs and calligraphy. Many were later uncovered, documented, or restored by the Swiss-Italian architects Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati.
 
Last edited:
Jobin said:
We need to dig up the Christian history of the church.
Click to expand...
You won’t need to do a lot of digging. The history of Justinian’s cathedral is quite well known. When the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople in 1453, they turned it into a mosque, and that’s what it was for nearly 500 years. It was only in 1935, less than a century ago, that the Ataturk government opened it as a museum.
 
Last edited:
GioG12 said:
  1. ICONOCLASM LED TO THE REMOVAL OF MANY PIECES OF ART
Meaning “image breaking” or “the smashing of images,” the period of iconoclasm (from about 726-787 AD and 815-843 AD) raged when the state banned the production or use of religious images, leaving the cross as the only acceptable icon. Many mosaics and paintings from the Hagia Sophia were destroyed, taken away, or plastered over.
Click to expand...
cool. nice to know.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top