Constantinople

A song beloved by Byzantine-Rite Calvinists everywhere, though it's been decades since I last heard it. The University Six perform.

A day to remember

Today marks the 555th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks.

St. John Chrysostom

Today marks the 1,600th anniversary of the death of St. John Chrysostom, the "golden tongued" (Χρυσόστομος) Archbishop of Constantinople who lived from c. 349 to 407. A native of Antioch, John was educated by the pagan Libanius and went on to study theology under Diodoros of Tarsus. He was an ascetic who disliked the conspicuous consumption of the wealthy classes. When he was appointed Archbishop of Constantinople, the imperial capital, he reluctantly became an official of the highest rank, with privileges approaching those of royalty. Nevertheless, he opposed the lavish lifestyles of the city's élite and spoke with courage against abuses in high places. He preached regularly on the duty to care for the poor, among whom he was well-loved.

He is known as the greatest preacher of the early church. The Orthodox Church's Divine Liturgy is named for him, in recognition of his contribution to the liturgy by revising its prayers and rubrics. His famous paschal homily is often read in churches on Easter, as it has been in our church. St. John is honoured by both eastern and western churches, including those of the Reformation. For example, John Calvin admired his straightforward interpretation of scripture, as opposed to Augustine's more allegorical approach. St. John died in exile in the Caucasus, with these words on his lips: "Glory be to God for all things!"

Here is a final word for us from St. John Chrysostom:

Even if we have thousands of acts of great virtue to our credit, our confidence in being heard must be based on God's mercy and His love for men. Even if we stand at the very summit of virtue, it is by mercy that we shall be saved.

Later: Coinciding with the anniversary comes this story out of Cyprus: Thousands queue outside Cyprus church after reports of miracle-working relic. St. John Chrysostom's skull is in the island and two miracles are being attributed to its presence.

Free Aghia Sophia


This remarkable report comes from Greek News:

Athens - A nascent international initiative to restore the Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Istanbul as a place of worship for all the world's Christians was outlined here on Thursday by veteran Greek-American political leader Chris Spirou, less than a week before a public hearing is scheduled on the religious monument's condition at the US Congress.

Spirou, a noted New Hampshire Democratic leader and long-time activist for Greek national issues in the United States, said the organisation he heads up (Free Agia Sophia Council of America) will present evidence showing the "violation" of Eastern Orthodoxy's most renowned basilica over the past 554 years. . . .

The hearing, to be held by the joint Congressional Human Rights Caucus (CHRC), marks the first time that Congress will hear testimony on the situation concerning Hagia Sophia.

What are the chances of Turkey taking action on this issue? Slightly worse, I would judge, than the chances of the proverbial snowball in the infernal regions. Spirou's efforts might be put to better use if he were to focus instead on persuading Ankara to permit the reopening of the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Theological School of Halki, the success of which is considerably more likely.

Letting go of the past

The following is my column for the 24 October issue of Christian Courier:

A few weeks ago I became aware of a campaign to have the fabled Aghia Sophia, the Church of the Holy Wisdom, in Istanbul returned to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. HagiaSophiaBlog.com is trying to collect at least one million signatures on a petition to convince the European Union (EU) to make return of this architectural wonder a condition for Turkey’s membership in that organization.

As a Christian with Orthodox roots on the paternal side, I must admit that this initially struck a chord with me. The Patriarchate has never relinquished its claim on the building, which the Ottoman Turks turned into a mosque after they conquered the city in 1453. As recently as the end of the Great War, many Greeks hoped that the defeat of the Ottoman Empire and the occupation of Constantinople by the victorious allies would lead to the Divine Liturgy once again being celebrated beneath the dome of the church built by the Emperor Justinian in 537.

Indeed, Aghia Sophia contains some of the most beautiful mosaics in the world, including this haunting icon of Christ (see the third image in the sidebar under "Web pages"), thought to have been fashioned shortly after the Byzantine Greeks recovered Constantinople from the Crusaders in 1261. These were covered over by the Muslims after the conquest, but in the early 1930s, shortly after the secularizing government of Mustafa Kemal had made the historic building into a museum, restoration of the mosaics was permitted. It continues as a museum to this day, despite the competing claims of two religious communities.

When I learned of the petition for its return, my first inclination was to sign. After all, the seizure of this historic place of worship was an obvious injustice. Shouldn’t it be rectified after all these centuries?

The answer to this question is not as obvious as some might think. If we say yes, we risk opening a pandora’s box in which long dormant injustices come pouring out, awaiting a resolution that may be impossible to achieve without unleashing further injustice. Should the two American continents be returned to the aboriginal peoples? If so, what do we do with the scores of millions of people of nonaboriginal descent? Should Israel be returned to the Palestinians, who were displaced from their homes nearly 60 years ago? If so, what do we do with the sabras, the generations of Israelis who were born there and know no other home?

In common law jurisdictions there is a concept known as the statute of limitations, which imposes time limits on the opportunity for injured parties to redress grievances. Why? Because in its absence injustices would continue to multiply until they overwhelmed the mundane concerns of ordinary people, who would be unable to get on with their lives because they were so consumed with the desire to right the wrongs of an increasingly remote past. Eventually, their descendants would be stewing over crimes committed against forebears generations earlier, thereby poisoning lives that might be better lived if they could manage – as the cliché puts it – to forgive and forget.

It is precisely in those parts of the world where people have allowed the wounds of the past to fester that establishing and maintaining political community is such a precarious venture. The Middle East, the Caucasus and the Balkans come immediately to mind.

Aghia Sophia is unlikely to be returned to the Orthodox Church and will almost certainly remain a museum. However, there is ample reason for the EU to raise the issue of Turkey’s current treatment of its religious minorities, including the Patriarchate, while letting the past be the past.

Athens, Constantinople and the victory of nationalism

One of the things that struck me when I first visited Athens in 1975 was its sheer newness. Unlike many European cities, which are centuries old and have substantial sections dating back to their earliest days, Athens has the feel of a modern industrial city. This surprised me. After all, Athens was supposed to be an ancient city, whose heritage included Solon, Pericles, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. It was known to be the birthplace of democracy and the centre of the classical Greek world.

To be sure, all of these elements were there, and Athenians are justifiably proud of the vestiges of this earlier history.  However, the city itself could not boast a continuous existence as an urban metropolis.  Indeed for long centuries, extending well into the 19th, Athens was a sleepy Turkish village consisting only of the neighbourhood known as the Plaka, nestled at the base of the Acropolis, and the various ancient ruins scattered around the vicinity.  The modern Greek capital was "invented" in 1834, the very year Toronto was incorporated as a city and the year after Chicago was started.


Gauntlet

Athens

The Greek revolt against the Ottoman Turks broke out in 1821 and continued throughout the following decade.  Nearly ten years later the Greeks had won the support of the European powers, but not for all of their aspirations.  The Ottoman Empire would not be supplanted by a revived Byzantine Empire centred in "The City," i.e., Constantinople. Rather a small Kingdom of Greece was created at the very foot of the Balkan Peninsula -- much smaller than today's Greek Republic.  The majority of ethnic Greeks remained within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire, while a minority were left to create a Greek state in land that was largely a rural backwater.  The major centres of Greek culture at the time -- Thessaloniki, Constantinople, Smyrna and Alexandria -- remained on the outside. The seaside town of Navplion was chosen as the first capital and a junior member of the Bavarian Wittelsbach dynasty became its first king.

The small territory of this new Greek kingdom just happened to include Athens, an unimposing village long since lapsed into obscurity, but with a luminous history in the distant past.  In 1834 the government of the kingdom decided to move the capital from Navplion to this unpromising location in deference to its classical heritage.

Yet well into the 20th century, Constantinople remained The City, the real urban centre of Greek civilization.  To be sure, many Greek Orthodox Christians moved to the new Greek kingdom to be free of Turkish rule.  But just as often, if not more so, Greeks moved in the other direction: to the more prosperous urban centres within the Ottoman Empire, where they were more likely to be able to make a comfortable living.  These cities were Turkish, but not in an ethnic sense.  They were in fact polyglot and had been for many centuries.  In Constantinople itself one was likely to hear many languages spoken in the street, Greek being especially prominent.  Constantinopolitan Greeks saw Athens as an upstart, unlikely to take the place of this ancient second capital of imperial Rome.


Texas Tech University

Constantinople

However, the 20th century saw the beginning of the end for these polyglot cities.  The Treaty of Lausanne fixed the boundary between Greece and Turkey.  Those on the wrong side of this arbitrary border were sent packing.  After Naser had come to power in Egypt in 1952, Greeks were no longer welcome in Alexandria and began to leave.  After Turkish authorities stood by and did nothing to stop an anti-Greek pogrom in Istanbul in September 1955, Greeks started to leave The City, moving to Greece or North America or Australia.  Istanbul became ethnically Turkish.  Thessaloniki had become wholly Greek, although it had boasted a large Jewish population prior to the Second World War.  Smyrna was destroyed in 1922, its polyglot character eliminated during the massacre in September of that year.

The old empires are gone.  Artificially contrived nation-states have taken their place.  Millions of refugees were created in the process. Citizenship has come to be tied to ethnicity and not to territory of birth. Is this progress? Nationalists would say yes. Greater homogeneity has been effected, but at great human cost. My own relatives have been victims. Small wonder then that, while I am able to see the positive contributions of virtually all the ideologies, I have a blind spot where nationalism is concerned. Nationalism may create solidarity serviceable to the creation and maintenance of political community, but it has done so at the expense of legitimate human diversity. The primary casualty has been justice itself.

A tragic anniversary

This month marks the 800th anniversary of the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Although the Crusade was originally directed at Egypt, the Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo, succeeded in diverting it to the fabled first City of what was then still known as the Roman Empire. That Christians would prey on other Christians is, of course, nothing less than a scandal. Much of the booty wound up in the Venetian Republic, including the famous bronze horses that had once graced the hippodrome.


Ecumenical Patriarchate

Hagia Sophia, Constantinople

Greeks have long memories and are still bitter over this offence from the west. In fact, 1204 looms much larger in their minds than 1054, the year in which the churches of Rome and Constantinople formally broke ties. Here is one contemporary account from the Greek side by Nicetas Choniates: "The Sack of Constantinople." In 2001 Pope John Paul II visited Athens and issued an historic apology on behalf of his Catholic ancestors for the Fourth Crusade. It is worth noting, however, that even Innocent III, who was Pope at the time, was horrified by the crusade and subsequently excommunicated the crusaders. Furthermore, since the crusaders also attacked the Catholic city of Zara, along the Dalmatian coast, this tragic episode ought not to be portrayed as exclusively a Catholic-Orthodox dispute.

Two decades ago I was privileged to attend an exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago titled, "The Treasury of San Marco, Venice." Included was a wealth of Byzantine artefacts from La Serenissima. My enthusiasm at viewing this fantastic collection was tempered by the realization that this was stolen wealth. Nearly a decade earlier I had stood in Venice itself, once a vassal of the Empire but which had broken with it, remaining an independent republic until Napoléon extinguished it in 1797.


Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche

San Marco's bronze horses

My genealogical research has revealed that Alexios IV Angelos, the ill-fated Byzantine Emperor who lost his throne just prior to the sack of the City, was variously my 24th, 25th and 27th great grand uncle.