Byzantine churches
built in Constantinople by the Theodosian dynasty (379‒457)
By Maria Vaiou
Arcadius (395‒408)[1]
St. Prodromus in Arcadianais
Attributed to the emperor Arcadius by the patriographers but they can hardly be trusted as they may have been led by the etymology of the word Arcadianae. Mentioned also in the Synaxarion of Constantinople [Syn C.].
Patria, iii, 25; Georgii Codini: excerpta de antiquitatibus Constantinopolitanis (Paris, 1655), 37‒64, 40 [=Cod.]; R. Janin, Les églises et les monastères, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1969) [=Janin2], 410‒1; A. Berger, Untersuchungen zu den Patria Konstantinupoleos (Bonn, 1988) [=Berger], 433; D. N. Angelova, Sacred founders: women, men, and gods in the discourse of imperial founding, Rome through early Byzantium (Berkeley, 2015), index, 424 [=Angelova].
Arcadia (d. 444) (daughter)[2]
St. Andrew ta Arcadias[3]
Attributed to Arcadia by the Chronicon Paschale and is mentioned for the first time in the seventh century.
Janin2, 27; L. James, Empresses and power in early Byzantium (London, 2001), 150; D. N. Angelova, ‘Stamp of power: the Life and afterlife of Pulcheria’s buildings’, in L. Jones (ed.), Byzantine images and their afterlives (Ashgate, 2014), 83‒103, 92, n.36; eadem, Sacred founders, 155, n. 62 index, 424; H. A. Klein, ‘Sacred relics and imperial ceremonies at the Great palace of Constantinople’, in F. A. Bauer (eds.), Visualisierungen von Herrschasft Byzas 5 (2006), 79–99, 84, n.34.
Theodosius II (408‒50)[4]
Theotokos Chalkoprateia=see below
Berger, 411; V. Kidonopoulos, Bauten in Konstantinopel 1204‒1328 (Wiesbaden, 1994),132, n. 1533 [Kidon.].
Paulinus in Cosmidion[5]
The patriographers attribute its construction to a friend of Theodosius II, the magister officiorum Paulinus. Repaired by the emperor Justinian. Existed up to the thirteenth century.
- Ebersolt, Sanctuaires de Byzance. Recherches sur les anciens trésors des églises de Constantinople (Paris, 1921), 98 [=Ebersolt]; Cod., 55‒6.
Monastery of Prodromus ton Stroggylou[6]
The patriographers attribute its construction to the emperor Theodosius II. The monastery ton Stroggylou is mentioned by the Anonymous of Banduri in his description of Constantinople. It is not certain where it was situated; it was possibly situated in Hebdomon as there was a fortress named Stroggylon (=Cyclobion) in the east of Hebdomon.
Cod., 55; Patria Konstantinoupoleos, Scriptores originum Constantinopolitarum, ed. T. Preger (Leipzig, 1907, repr. 1989), iii, 303 [Preger]; Janin,2 479.
Arcadia (d. 444) (sister)[7]=see above
Aelia Eudocia (d. 460) (Wife)[8]
St. Polyeuctus in Constantinianai[9] (Saraçhane)
The site is located in the Saraçhane area in the vicinity of the aqueduct of Valens. İn the early fifth century the relics of St. Polyeuctus were translated in the city and Eudocia, built a church in his honor. According to the patriographers this church was built by Juliana, daughter (sic) of Valentinian, the founder of the aqueduct, whose parentage is obviously an invention and applies here instead of his brother Valens (364‒78) as builder of the aqueduct. Juliana who lived in the beginning of the sixth century was married to Areobindus and was the daughter of Olyvrius, who reigned as emperor in the West (467‒72). Anicia Juliana replaced the church by a more lavish building in 524‒27. The inscriptions on two marble blocks discovered were identified as parts of a poem preserved in the Palatine Anthology in the eleventh century. This poem was written in honour of Anicia Juliana and consists of two parts, the first praising the princess and the second describing the church. The church was of a basilical form. The martyr’s relics were still there in the tenth century. Before 1136 spolia from the church were used in the monastery of Pantocrator. Plundered during the Latin conquest in 1204. Parts of its masonry were taken to Venice by the Fourth Crusade and used in Aquileia, Barcelona and Vienna. Remains of its walls and a few fragments of its columns and carvings can be seen in the Archaelogical Museum of Istanbul. Mentioned by English Anonymous and Anthony, who saw the relics of St. Polyeuctus in a chapel in the church of Apostles. In the ‘Book of Ceremonies’ the church is mentioned as being on the processional route to the church of Sts Apostles. When the emperor went to the basilica of St. Apostles on the Easter Monday, he stopped at St. Polyeuctus and changed the candle. From there he directed himself to St. Apostles by the Mese. When the imperial processsion left St. Apostles to go to the palace, he was first welcomed by the marble Lions in the vicinity of the basilica, then to St. Polyeuctus where the chief of the Blues received the emperor. In the west of the park of the sultan Fātiḥ [=Muḥammad II], were found ruins of this Byzantine church, 52 metres long, discovered in 1960 during works of contruction of the boulevard Atatürk.
Patria, iii, 57; Cod., 46; Janin2, 405‒6; idem, ‘Les processions religieuses a Byzance’, REB 24 (1966), 69‒88, 76‒7; T. F. Mathews, The Byzantine churches of Istanbul: a photographic survey (Penn., 1976), 225‒30; ‘Martyrdom’= ed. and Fr. tr. by F. Halkin, ‘Martyre de saint Polyeucte BHG 1568d’, in idem, Le ménologe impérial de Baltimore (Brussels, 1986), 84‒98; Berger, 510‒2, index; Ch. Walter, The warrior saints in Byzantine art and tradition (Aldershot, 2003), 236‒8; C. Mango and 1. Sevcenko, ‘Remains of the church of St. Polyeuktos at Constantinople’, DOP 15 (1961), 243‒7; M. Whitby, ‚The St Polyeuktos epigram (AP 1.10): a literary perspective‘, in S. Fitzgerald Johnson (ed.), Greek Literature in Late Antiquity (Aldershot, 2006), 159‒88; C. Barsanti, ‘Da Constantinopoli a Venezia. Nuove spoglie della chiesa di S. Polieucto. Nota preliminare, Néa Rhóme’, RRB 6 (2009), 133‒56; C. Milner, ‘The image of the rightful ruler Anicia Juliana’s Constantine mosaic in the church of Holy Polyeuktos’, in P. Magdalino, New Constantines. The rhythm of imperial renewal in Byzantium, 4th-13th centuries. Papers from the twenty-sixth spring symposium of Byzantine studies.St. Andrews, March 1992 (Aldershot,1993), 73‒81; C. Connor, ‘The epigram in the church of Hagios Polyeuktos in Constantinople and its Byzantine response’, B 69 (1999), 479‒527; eadem, ‘The epigram on the church of Hagios Polyeuktos in Istanbul and its Byzantine response’, Abstracts of the Byzantine studies conference 23 (Madison, 1997); eadem, ‘Women and artistic patronage Anicia Juliana’ in eadem, Women of Byzantium (London, 2004), 94‒117, 106‒15; eadem, ‘The church of Hagios Polyeuktos in Constantinople and Anicia Juliana’s quest for immortality’, XXe CEB. Pré-Actes, 3. Communications libres (Paris, 2001); Constantine VII Porphrogénète. Le livre des Cérémonies, I–II: texte établi et traduit par A. Vogt (Paris, 1935– 39), 84 [De Cér., A. Vogt]; R. M. Harrison and N. Firatli, ‘Excavations at Saraçhane in Istanbul’, DOP 19 (1965), 230‒6; 20 (1966), 222‒38; 21 (1967), 273‒8; 22 (1968), 195‒216; J. Taylor, Imperial İstanbul. A traveller’s guide ((London, 1998), 22; J. Bardill, ‘A new temple for Byzantium: Anicia Juliana, king Solomon, and the gilded seiling of the church of St. Polyeuktos in Constantinople’, in W. Bowden et al. (eds.), Social and politiical life in late antiquity (Leiden, 2006), 339‒70; B. Kiilerich, ‘Salomon, jeg har overgået dig! Anicia Julianas kirkebyggeri i Konstantinopel’, Kirke og kultur 105 (2000), 117‒27; T. Mathews, The early churches of Constantinople. Architecture and liturgy (Penn State, London, 1971), 52‒5; P. Speck, Juliana Anicia, Konstantin der Grosse und die Polyeuktoskirche in Konstantinopel (Bonn, 1991), 133‒47; R. M. Harrison, ‘The church of St. Polyeuktos in Istanbul and the temple of Solomon,’ in Okeanos, Essays presented to I. Ševčenko, ed. C. Mango and O. Pritsak (Cambridge Mass, 1983), 276‒9; idem, ‘A source for Anicia Juliana’s palace-church’, Philadelphie et autres études (Paris, 1984), 141‒2; idem, ‘Scavi della chiesa di S. Polieucto a Istanbul’, Corsi di cult. sull‘ arte rav. e biz. Ravenna 6-18 May 1979 (Ravenna, 1979), 157‒62; idem, ‘La scultura marmorea della chiesa di S. Polieucto a Istanbul’, Corsi di cult. sull‘ arte rav. e biz. Ravenna 6-18 May 1979, 163‒70; idem, Excavations at Sarachane in Istanbul: the excavations, structures, architectural decoration, small finds, coins, bones and molluscs (Princeton, 1986); idem, ‘A Constantinopolitan capital in Barcelona’, DOP 27 (1973), 297‒300; idem, A temple for Byzantium: the discovery and excavation of Anicia Juliana’s palace-church in Istanbul (London, 1989); idem, ‘The sculptural decoration of the church of St.Polyeuktos / Acta di Congresso Internationale di Arqueologia Cristiana, Barcelona (Vatican, Barcelona, 1972), 325; idem, ‘Anicia Juliana’s church of St. Polyeuktos’, JÖB 32/4 (1982), 435‒42; J. W. Hayes, Excavations at Saraçhane in İstanbul .The Pottery 2 (Princeton, 1992); ODB, 3, 1696; W. Müller-Wiener, Bildlexikon zur Topographie Istanbuls (Tübingen, 1977), 190‒2; P. Magdalino, ‘Aristocratic Oikoi in the tenth and eleventh regions of Constantinople’, in idem, Studies on the history and topography of byzantine Constantinople (Aldershot, 2006), 53–69, 58‒60; W. R Paton, tr.. ‘The epigram from Hagios Polyeuktos’, In Greek Anthology, 1, book 1, epigram 10, Greek text with facing English translation 6‒11 (1916) (repr. Cambridge, 1993); K. Ciggaar, ’Une description de Constantinople traduite par un pèlerin anglais’, ed. K. Ciggaar REB 34 (1976), 211‒67, 26; I. Shahid, ‘The church of Hagios Polyeuktos in Constantinople. Some new observations’, GA 9‒10 (2004), 343‒55; J.-P. Sodini, ‘Les paons de Saint Polyeukte et leurs modeles’, in I. Sevcenko-Irmgard Hutter eds., AETOS. Studies in Honor of Cyril Mango (Stuttgart-Leipzig 1998), 306‒13; B. Pitarakis, L’ orfèvre et l’ architecte: autour d’un groupe d’ édifices constantinopolitains du VIe siècle’, in A. Cutler and A. Papaconstantinou (eds.), The material and the ideal. Essays in medieval art and archaeology in honour of Jean-Michel Spieser (Leiden, 2007), 63‒74; Strube, Polyeuktoskirche und Hagia Sophia. Umbildung und Auflösung antiker Formen, Entstehen des Kämpferkapitells; M. Vickers, ‘A ‘new’ capital from St. Polyeuktos (Saraçhane) in Venice’, OJA 8 (1989), 227‒9; L. Pasquini Vecchi, ‘La scultura di S. Polieucto: episodio saliente nel quadro della cultura artistica di Constantinopoli’, Bizantinistica I (1999), 109‒44; G. Fowden, Constantine, ‘Silvester and the church of S. Polyeuctus in Constantinople’, JRA 7 (1994), 275‒84; L. James, ‘The empress and the Virgin in early Byzantium: piety, authority and devotion’ , in M. Vassilaki (ed.), Images of the Mother of God. Perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantium (Aldershot, 2005), 145‒52, 149; J. Bardill, Brickstamps of Constantinople, 2 vols (Oxford, 2004), i, index, 419; I. Jevtic, French translation of J. Bardill, ‘Reconstructing the Church of St. Polyeuktos in Constantinople’, in J.-M. Spieser (ed.), Architecture paléochrétienne (Gollion-Paris 2011); N. Schibille, J. McKenzie, ‘Glass tesserae from Hagios Polyeuktos, Constantinople: their early Byzantine affiliations’, in D. Keller, J. Price, C. M. Jackson (eds.), Neighbours and successors of Rome. Traditions of glass production and use in Europe and the Middle East in the later 1st millenium AD (Oxford, 2014), 114‒27; Angelova, index, 424; A. Dilsiz, ‘The Byzantine heritage of Istanbul: resource or burden? A study on the surviving ecclesiastical architecture of the historical peninsula within the framework of perception, preservation and research in the Turkish Republican period’, MA (Koç Univ., 2006), 68‒71; J. Bogdanovic, The framing of sacred space: the canopy and the Byzantine church (Oxford, 2017), 268f.
Pulcheria ( d. 453) (Sister)[10]
St. Lawrence at Pulcherianai=Sheykh Murād mosque
The construction of this church is attributed sometimes to Pulcheria, and other times to Pulcheria and Marcian. The first tradition is expressed by the count Marcellinus, George the Monk and Nicephorus Callistus and is more credible. The second is mentioned in the Patria and other sources. The basilica was built to receive the relics of St. Lawrence which gave the church its name. They arrived from Rome to Constantinople before the end of the reign of the emperor Theodosius II (28 July 450). By the late fifth century it possessed the relics of St. Stephen, which the empress Eudocia, Pulcheria’s sister-in-law, had sent from Constantinople in 439. The most important was the cult of the prophet Isaiah, who was buried in a chapel attached. His veneration was so popular that it led to a kind of a double patronage of the church. Completed in the reign of Marcian in 453. The church is mentioned in the synod of 536 in two testimonies from a bishop designated Lawrence and from another as Isaiah’s church. This also proves that the worship of Isaiah was pre-iconocastic. Rebuilt by the emperor Basil I. Near the place of Ayakapı. Close to Matrona’s (BHG 1221) nunnery. Existed until the thirteenth century and it is attested by the English Anonymous and Anthony.
Patria, iii, 71; Janin2, 301‒4; on the ‘Life of Matrona of Perge’, in AASS Nov., III (Rome, 1910), 790‒813; see A. M. M. Talbot ed., Holy Women of Byzantium: ten saints’ lives in English translation (Washington DC, 1996), 13‒64 at 53; Berger, 529‒32; J. Ph. Thomas, Private religious foundations in the Byzantine empire (Washington DC, 1987), 24; Mamboury, 255; J. B. Papadopoulos, ‘L’ église St. Laurent et les Pulcheriana’, SBN 2 (1927), 59‒63; James, ‘The empress and the Virgin’, in Vassilaki, Images, 148; Klein, ‘Sacred relics’, in Bauer, Visualisierungen, 85, n.47; Angelova, ‘Stamp of power’, 83‒103, 85, 91f., 102; Cod., 48; Holum, 137, 196.
St. Stephen in Zeugma (Unkapanı)[11] or Konsta[12]
Founded probably by Pulcheria during the reign of the emperor Anastasius and Ariadne. She placed there the relics of St. Stephen that her great grandmother Aelia Eudocia had brought back from Jerusalem in 439. The church was dated from the sixth century. According to the Patria the relics of Stephen were buried in the church of the Forty Martyrs under Anastasius and not in the then constructed small church of Stephen. This church of the Forty martyrs is identical with the church of Stephen in Constantinianae. However, the fact that the church of St. Stephen was consecrated to the Forty martyrs and was renamed to Stephen after the translation cannot be verified in the sources. Important relics of the saint were preserved there and were displayed for veneration on his festival. Probably the church had a chapter of Canons during the Latin occupation. A monastery was testified there for the first time. Most important martyreion by the tenth century as stated in the Typikon of the Great Church and SynC. Visited by by English Anonymous in 1190, Anthony, and Ignatius in 1389. Church and monastery existed probably until the year 1453.
Patria, iii, 55; Cod., 47; Magdalino, ‘Oikoi’, 61‒6; Berger, 86, 471‒5; Janin2, 474, 474‒6; idem, ‘Processions’, 76, 83; G. Majeska, Russian Travelers to Constantinople in the fourteenth and fifteenth ceturies (Washington, 1984), 351‒3; Mordtmann, 12, 113; Ciggaar, ‘Description’, 40; G. Prinzing and P. Speck, ‘Fünf Lokalitäten in Konstantinopel’, in H. G. Beck (ed.), Studien zur Frühgeschichte Konstantinopels (München, 1973), 179‒227, 179‒87; Klein, ‘Sacred relics’, in Bauer, Visualisierungen, 84, n.46.
Church and monastery of Theotokos ton Hodegon
Pucheria’s foundation of the three shrines of the Virgin i.e. ton Hodegon, Blachernae, and Chalkoprateia, is problematic as it is attested in late sources. The construction of the church is attributed to Pulcheria by Theodore Lector (ca.518), a testimony which was repeated centuries later by Nicephorus Callistus’ Historia Ecclesiastica (ca. 1310‒1320). There are however two other sources which attribute the foundation to the empress Pulcheria: Nikolaos Mesarites in his Description of the Church of the Holy Apostles and the anonymous author of the Tale of the Divine and Venerable church of the Most Holy Mother of God, called the Hodegon. The emperor Constantine V (741‒75) is associated by tradition with the history of the Hodegon; this is evident in the Logos Diegematikos, which records narratives that ‘composed the official history’ of the monastery in the fourteenth century. The text tells us of the conversion of the old church of the Hodegon into a monastery. The emperor ceded an old chapel to a monk Hypatius; the establishment of the original chapel was intended to promote the miraculous spring that existed on the same site. Theophanes the Confessor mentions that in 768 the engagement between Irene to Leo IV took place in the church which points to the construction of the church by Constantine V. Derived its name from the office of the hodegoi, who led the blind to the holy water of a miraculous fountain around which the shrine grew up. The patriographers attribute the construction of the sanctuary, without specifying whether it was a church or monastery to the emperor Michael III (842‒67). It is possible that he founded the monastery, though this cannot be proven. However the reference in the iconodule polemic Letter of the Three Patriarchs to emperor Theophilus (ca. 836) that the lector of the church of the Holy Virgin of the Heavenly Guides, John VII Grammaticus (837‒43) urged the emperor Leo V to reinstate iconoclasm contests the previous hypothesis. In the mid fifth century the icon of Virgin Hodegetria ascribed to St. Luke the Evangelist was deposited in a chapel at the fountain. A monastery was added later to the shrine. A louma is attested in the ninth until the twelfth century. The church is not mentioned in sources before the ninth century with the exception of Theophanes. Renovated by the emperor Michael III; it is also possible that he adapted older surviving buildings to new functions. The fact also that Constantine V, being an iconoclast, was mentioned as the renovator of the Hodegon by the anonymous Tale could have been perhaps used in later tradition replacing him by Michael III as the builder of the monastery. Mentioned in relation to a visit in 866 by caesar[13] Bardas. In the eleventh century the monastery possessed a scriptorium and it was an important centre of manuscript production. Acquired fame from the twelfth century onwards due to a Virgin’s icon, the Hodegetria. It was restored in the twelfth century. An epigram attributes its reconstruction to the megas hetaireiarches[14] George Comnenus Ducas Palaiologus.[15] Visited by the English Anonymous, who describes the religious ceremonies that spread throughout the city originating from the church of the Hodegetria and mentions that the icon of Hodegetria, painted by Luke the Evangelist was carried in procession every week. This is corroborated by the ‘Life of St. Basil the Younger’ (BHG 263‒264) written by the deacon Gregory in the mid. tenth century. An additional source for the procession of the Hodegetria is the story ‘On the icon of the Theotokos called Romaia’ (ca. late 11th‒12 c.). The later source in addition with the anonymous author of the Tale and the 11th century Life of Thomais of Lesbos speak of the Tuesday processions of the miraculous image of the Hodegetria proceeding through the city towards the Blachernae. Mentioned also by Anthony, and Zosima. It is possible that the monastery was occupied by the Latin clergy during the Latin occupation. Among other events of this period was when Andronicus II learnt that the rebellion of Alexius Philanthropenus had been suppressed in 1296 and went solemny to thank Theotokos in the sanctuary of the Hodegoi and prayed in front of her icon. Pachymeres mentions that it was restored by patr. Athanasius I (1289‒93, 1303‒9),[16] probably between 1305‒9. The spring was renovated by the emperor Isaac II Angelus and the event is commemorated by an epigram of Theodore Balsamon (1185‒1198/1205); his epigrams shed light on the history of the monastery. The sanctuary is associated with many historical events and is one of the most important in the last centuries of the empire. Andronicus III, reconciled with his grandfather, went there in a first of series of pilgrimages for thanksgiving for the reestablishment of peace (1322). On August 1337, he returned to offer thanks to Theotokos for a naval victory against the Turks. Served as his last refuge before his death in 1341. In 1438 at the moment of leaving for the council of Ferrare-Florence, the emperor John VIII Palaiologus ordered solemn prayers for the reform and the union of the church. The icon played an important role in the city’s history: during the attack of the Arabs against Constantinople in 717 it was taken along the ramparts with the true cross to secure the protection of the city. The icon was taken to St. Sophia for the coronation of the Latin emperor Henry of Flanders. The Venetians removed it by night and placed in the Pantocrator monastery where it remained until 1261. Had a special role at the triumphal entry of the emperor Michael VIII in 1261. The icon was still preserved in the palace in the second half of the fourteenth century. During the last siege of the capital the icon was transported to the Chora monastery where it was the focus of public prayers. In 1453 it fell to the hands of the janissaries who destroyed it. There is no trace of the church today. Possessed a chapel or church dedicated to St. Anne, which is mentioned in an epigram by Theodore Balsamon. The monastery must have had a connection with the monastery on Bithynian Olympus; the latter was likely to have been a dependancy or metochion of the Hodegon. From the 10th century the monastery became the residence of the patriarchs of Antioch. It served as a pied-de- terre for the prelates and the monks of Syria who came for their affairs in the capital. After the fall, the patriarchal officials and probably the patriarch found refuge in the monastery on Mount Olympus. It could also be identified with the monastery of ton Zipon in which Theodore Balsamon while he was patriarch of Antioch had been acting as its abbot. During the Palaiologan era the church was the fourth imperial mausoleum in addition to the church of the Holy Apostles, the Pantocrator and the Lips monasteries. Destroyed after the conquest of 1453. The church was situated east of St. Sophia. Majeska locates the monastery north, near the Mangana monastery, and Berger between Topoi [17]and Tzykanistrerion[18], in the strip between the sea shore and the old palace. Kidonopoulos locates it ‘north of the lighthouse of the port in the Gate of Balikhane’[19]. The introduction to the Athonite Tale[20] provides a glimpse into the original shape of the complex’s foundations. In 1923 in the hospital of Gülhane[21] in the old Seraglio were found remains of a buildings identifed with the bath of the monastery and lay far in the north east of St. Sophia. The hospital was initialyl a medical secondary school which was erected by the sultan Mahmud II (1808‒39) in 1824. In the end of the 19th century it was allocated by the sultan Abdülhamid II (1876‒1909) to his Military Medical Academy. It served until the end of the 20th century as a military medical institution; the area of the main sanctuary and monastic buildings would lay where the Turkish military installation is and cannot be excavated due to a full revitalization of the complex by the military authorities. Recent research links the terrace of Gülhane hospital with the monastery; the complex was near the palace of Marina which was transformed in the 10th century into public baths and can be identified with the hexagonon building discovered by Demangel and Mamboury.
Patria, iii, 27; Janin2, 199‒207; on the hegoumenos of the monastery, see EPLBHC, I, Arsenios’, 396‒7; Berger, 376‒8; Ebersolt, 69f.; Τh. Balsamon, ed. K. Horna, ‘Die Epigramme des Theodoros Balsamons’, WS 25 (1903), 190‒1; H.-G. Beck, Kirche und Theologische Literatur im Byzantinischen Reich (München, 1959), 96, 214; R. Macrides, George Akropolites. The history, Introduction, translation and commentary (Oxford, 2007). 383; Ciggaar, ‘Description..’, 4; Mordtmann, 91; D. F. Sullivan, A. M. Talbot, S. McGrath, The Life of Saint Basil the Younger (Washington DC, 2014), index, 809, 826; ODB, 2, 939; C. Angeldi-T. Papamastorakis, ‘The veneration of the Virgin Hodegetria and the Hodegon monastery’, in M. Vassilaki, Mother of God. Representations of the Virgin in Byzantine art (Skira, 2000), 373‒5; C. Angelidi, ed./ tr. ‘Un texte patriographique et édifiant: le ‘Discours narratif’ sur les Hodègoi’, REB 52 (1994), 113‒49; Majeska, 362‒6; R. Demangel and E. Mamboury, Le quartier des Manganes et la première région de Constantinople (Paris, 1939), 71‒111; A. Failler, ‘Une donation des époux Sanianoi au monastère des Hodègoi’, REB 34 (1976), 111‒7; E. von Dobschütz, ‘Maria Romaia: Zwei unbekannte Texte’, in BZ 12.1 (1903), 173‒214; R. L. Wolff, ‘Footnote to an incident of the Latin occupation of Constantinople: the church and the icon of the Hodegetria’, Traditio 6 (1948), 319‒28; Mathews, Churches, 200‒5; N. Necipoglu, ‘Byzantine monasteries and monastic property in Thessalonike and Constantinople during the period of Ottoman conquests. (Late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries)’, JOS 15 (1995), 123‒35, 133; H. Tezcan, Topkapı Sarayı ve çevresinin Bizans devri arkeolojisi (Istanbul, 1989), 55‒61; N. Atzemoglou, T’ agiasmata tıs polıs (Athens, 1990), 17; H. Magoulias, tr. O City of Byzantium: annals of Niketas Choniates (Detroit, 1984), 209‒10; F. Miklosich–J. Müller, Acta et diplomata Graeca Mediiaevi Acta Patriarchatus Constantinopolitani 1315‒1402, vols 2 (Aalen, 1968), 2, no. 568 (April 1400) [=ΜΜ]; V Laurent, Fasc. IV, Les Regestes de 1208 a 1309 (Paris, 1971), N.1505, 1508, 1516, 1568, 1614; J. Darrouzès, Les regestes des actes du patriarcat de Constantinople. I/5: Les regestes de 1310 à 1376. I/6: Les regestes de 1377 à 1410. I/7: Les regestes de 1410 à 1453 (Paris, 1977‒91), Reg. 1310 a 1376, N. 2164, 2356, 2385, 2390, 2397, 2483, 2567, 2570, 2668, Reg. 1377 a 1410, 3033, 3125; O. Kresten, ‘Die Affäre des Abtes Ananias des Hodegon-Klosters in Konstantinopel (I. Teil.-Dokument A)’, ‘Die Affäre des Abtes Ananias des Hodegon-Klosters in Konstantinopel (II. Teil. –Dokument F)’, ‘Die Affäre des Markos von Apameia und das Hodegon-Kloster (Dokument H)’, in Die Beziehungen zwischen den Patriarchaten von Konstantinopel und Antiocheia unter Kallistos I. Und Philotheos Kokkinos im Spiegel des Patriarchatregisters von Konstantinopel (Verlag, 2000), 10‒22, 40‒6, 65‒70 [Abhandlungen der Geistes –und sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse Jahrgang 2000 Nr 6] ; for a distrinction between Hodegon and Hodegetria, see N. 2242 Crit. 4, 2567 Crt. 2 ; Kidon., 77‒8; P. Hatlie, The monks and monasteries of Constantinople, ca. 350‒850 (Cambridge, 2007), 471; B. Zeitler, ‘Cults disrupted and memories recaptured: events in the Life of the icon of the Virgin Hodegetria in Constantinople’, in W. Reinink and J. Stumpel (eds.), Memory and Oblivion: Proceedings of the XXIXth International Congress of the History of Art held in Amsterdam, 1–7 September 1996. (Dordrecht, 1999), 701‒8; A. Dzurova, ‘La decoration des manuscrits à l’époque des Paléologues: le Tétraévangile Vlorë 10 et la production du monastère des Hodèges à Constantinople’, in D. Sakel, Byzantine culture. Papers from the conference ‘Byzantine days of Istanbul’ held on the occasion of Istanbul being European cultural capital 2010 Istanbul, May 21-23 2010 (Ankara, 2014), 405‒22; L. Politis, ‘Eine Schreiberschule im Kloster τῶν Όδηγῶν’, BZ 51 (1958), 17‒36; idem, ‘Nouvelles données sur Joasaph, copiste du monastère des Hodèges’, Illinois Classical Studies 7 (1982), 299‒322; R. Shawn Swanson, ‘Aelia Pulcheria and Mary Theotokos: Fenestra et speculum’ (Utah Univ. 2003); H. Hunger‒O. Kresten, Archaisierende Minuskel und Hodegonstil im 14. Jahrhundert’, JÖB 29 (1980), 187‒236; Angelova, ‘Stamp of power’, 85; I. Shalina, ‘Vtornichnye shestvia s ikonoi Bogomater’ Odigitria v Konstantinopole (The Tuesday processions with the Hoderetria icon in Constantinople)’, in Vizantia i Khristianskii Vostok, Material from the conference in memory of Alice Bank (St Petersburg, 1999), 58‒62; B. Pentcheva, ‘The activated icon: the Hodegetria procession and Mary’s Eisodos’, in Vassilaki, Images of the Mother of God, 195‒207; M. Bacci, ‘La “Madonna Costantinopolitana” nell‟abbazia di Santa Giustina di Padova‟, in Luca Evangelista. Parola e immagine tra Oriente e Occidente, ed. G. Mariani Canova (Padua, 2000), 405‒7; I. Shalina, ‘Bogomater’Efesskaia-Polotskaia-Korsunskaia-Toropetskaia: istoricheskieimena i arkhetip chudotvornoi ikony /Our Lady of Ephesus, Polotsk, Chersones and Toropets. Historical names and the archetype of a miracle-working icon’, in Chudotvornaja ikona v Vizantii i Drevnei Rusi /The miracle-working icon in Byzantium and Old Rus’, ed. A.Lidov (Moscow, 1996), 200‒9; A. Lidov, ‘The flying Hodegetria. The miraculous icon as bearer of sacred space’, in ‘The miraculous image in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance‘, ed. E. Thunoe and G. Wolf (Rome 2004), 291‒321; E. Mitsiou, ‘Die Netzwerke einer kulturellen Begegnung: byzantinische und lateinische Klöster in Konstantinopel im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert’, in L. Lieb, K. Oschema, J. Heil (eds.), Abrahams Erbe: Konkurrenz, Konflikt und Koexistenz der Religionen im Europäischen Mittelalter (Berlin, 2015); M. Angold, Nicholas Mesarites. His life and works (in Translation) (Liverpool, 2017), index; P. Grotowski, ‘The Hodegon. Considerations on the location of the Hodegetria sanctuary in Constantinople’, Byzantina Symmeikta 27 (2017), 1‒18; idem, ‘The Hodegon and the Great palace’, Byzantina Symmeikta 27 (2017), 19‒24; idem, ‘The Hodegon and the palace of Marina’, Byzantina Symmeikta 27 (2017), 25‒36; idem, ‘Hodegon and the St. Lazarus monastery’, Byzantina Symmeikta 27 (2017), 37‒46; idem, ‘Hodegon and the Gülhane hospital’, Byzantina Symmeikta 27 (2017), 47‒61.
Oratory of St. Stephen in the palace of Daphne[22]
According to the patriographers the oratory was built by the emperor Constantine. Theophanes says that it was built by Pulcheria to depose the relic of the the right arm of the protomartyr St. Stephen which reached the capital in 421. Played an important role in the imperial ceremonies. Imperial coronations and marriages took place there from the seventh up to the tenth centuries. The emperors Eudocia and Heraclius were crowned in the church. The emperors Irene and Leo IV, Theophilus and Theodora, Michael III and Eudocia were married there. In the tenth century they were celebrated in St. Mary of the Pharos. In the ‘Book of Ceremonies’ the church is mainly associated with a ceremony of the True Cross with a cleasing ritual: the Cross was taken to the church from where it was carried to all quarters of the capital with the aim to sanctify and purify the city and its people. The imperial processions stopped there frequently: when the basileus went to St. Sophia, on the Pentecost, Christmas, the vigil of Epiphany, Palm Sunday, and Holy Thursday. Among the ritual objects it possessed there were scepters, ptychia, and golden kanditatikia and relics such as a fragment of the True Cross of Constantine, and a copy of the Gospel of Matthew written by St. Barnabas (BHG 226e); the latter was taken from his tomb under the reign of the emperor Zeno. It should be distinguished from the church of St. Stephen of the Hippodrome which was close. The right hand of St. Stephen was venerated there until the twelfth century.
Janin2, 473‒4; J. F. Haldon, Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Three treatises on imperial military expeditions (Wien, 1990), 272; J. Ebersolt, Le Grand Palais de Constantinople et le livre des cérémonies (Paris, 1910), 52; E. Bolognesi Recchi–Franceschini, M. Featherstone, ‘The boundaries of the palace De Cerimoniis II, 13’, T&M 14 (2002), 37‒46; Klein, ‘Sacred relics’, in Bauer, Visualisierungen, 90‒1, n. 76, 93f.; Brickstamps, vol. 1, 32; C. A. Mango, ‘A fake inscription of the empress Eudocia and Pulcheria’s relic of saint Stephen’, Nea Rhome 1 (2004), 23‒34, 30, 32f.; Angelova, ‘Stamp of power’, 85 [in the palace].
St. Agnes=see above St. Lawrence
Attributed to the empress Pulcheria by Nicephorus Callistus, who says that after the discovery of the relics of St. Lawrence and St. Agnes, the empress constructed for their reception a very great and beautiful church. He spoke without doubt of the church of St. Lawrence of the Pulcherianae. No other document allows us to say that it was dedicated to St. Agnes or jointly with that of St. Lawrence. A part of the relics of St. Agnes were transferred to Constantinople at the same time with those of St. Lawrence; however no text mentions any other information.
Janin2, 9; K. Holum, ‘Pulcheria’s crusade A.D. 421‒22 and the ideology of imperial victory’, GRBS 18 (1977), 153‒72.
Forty martyrs
According to the fifth century ecclesiastical historian Sozomen, Pulcheria after dream visions in 434/447 had the relics of the martyrs of Sebaste which were found under the church of Thyrsus in Constantinople, a building which was constructed by the consul Flavius Caesarius in 397, transferred to a church. The seventh century Byzantine chronicle Chronicon Paschale says that in 451 the relics of the forty martyrs were discovered in the church of Thyrsus by Pulcheria, who then founded a church for them.
James, Empresses and power, 150, n.16; Klein, 86.
Theotokos Chalkoprateia[23] (‘Our Lady in the Coppermarket’) The Acemi Ağa Masjid or Lala Hayreddin Masjid
Situated 150 metres from the church of St. Sophia next to Zeynep Sultan Mosque opposite to the Gülhane park. It was located in the fourth region.[24] It was a three aisled basilica. Identified by Mamboury in 1912. Originally a church dedicated to the mother of God in the quarter of Chalkoprateia. Theophanes mentions that the emperor Justin converted the synagogue of the Jews into a church, which may refer to his restoration later. Founded in the fourth century by Pulcheria, sister of the emperor Theodosius II. Finished by Verina, wife of the emperor Leo I. Functioned as patriarchal church after 532 when Hagia Sophia was damaged by fire. Levelled twice by earthquakes, it was rebuilt by the emperor Justin II, who added a new chapel for the Virgin’s girdle and by the emperor Basil I. The church was adjoined by a number of chapels, the Soros, which contained the relic of the girdle, a chapel of Christ and a chapel of St. James. A miracle-working icon of the Christ Antiphonetes was kept in the eleventh century. In 1190 the Anonymous reports that in its atrium there was a church of St. Jacob where the relics of St. Jacob, Zacharias, Symeon and of the innocent children were deposed. Visited by Anthony. Located in the area of the great fire of 1203, and was used by Latins the latest in the year 1208. After the Latin robbery of the relics, the church declined during the Latin occupation. Not mentioned by the Russian pilgrims of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Mentioned in 1320 by Nicephorus Callistus. Restored probably between the end of the 13th century/beginning of the 14th century. Two fragments of frescos relevant to the infancy of Christ, have been discovered, and suggest that one part of the Chalkoprateia complex functioned until the fourteenth century. Transformed into a mosque in 1484, the early reign of the sultan Bāyezīd II by Lala Hayreddin, the arpa emini (controller of the supplies of barley). He established a waqf and Acemi Ağa, the bab us sade agha (chief eunuch of the sultan’s harem) extended it by assigning ecza-i şerife (thirty parts which comprise the Koran). A fire in 1200/1785 damaged the masjid severely. It was in use until the early 20th century. Today all that can be seen are the apse and part of the north wall.
Patria, iii, 32, 147; Pmbz, index, 350; Cod., 43 [attr. Theodosius]; Janin2, 237‒42; A. Berger, ‘Imperial and ecclesiastical processions in Constantinople’, in N. Necipoğlu (ed.), Byzantine Constantinople. Monuments, topography and everyday life, (Leiden, 2001), 73‒88, 76, 79, 80, 81, 85, 86; T. Mathews, The early churches of Constantinople. Architecture and liturgy (Penn State, London, 1971), 28‒33; idem, The Byzantine churches of Istanbul. A photographic survey (Penn State, 1976), 319‒21; A. Mordtmann, Equisse topographique de Constantinople (Lille, 1892), 115; Berger, 411‒4; Beck, Kirche, 157, 262, 503, 549; D. Lathoud, ‘Le sanctuaire de la Vierge aux Chalcopratia’, EO 23 (1924), 36‒62; S. Eyice, Istanbul Petit guide à travers les monuments byzantins et turcs (Istanbul, 1955), 19; idem, ‘Acem Aga mescidi’, IA (1958), i, 178‒80; idem, ‘Acemi Ağa Mescidi’ in DB√A I (1994), 60‒1; Ebersolt, 54‒60, 59, index; De Cér., A. Vogt, 76‒7; H. Crane, The garden of the mosques. Hafiz Hüseyin al-Ayvansarayi’s guide to the Muslim monuments of Ottoman Istanbul (Leiden, 2000), 165, n. 1258; D. Krausmüller, ‘Making the most of Mary: the cult of the Virgin in the Chalkoprateia from late antiquity to the tenth century’, in L. Brubaker and M. B. Cunningham (eds), The cult of the Mother of God in Byzantium: texts and images (Ashgate, 2011), 219‒46; P. of Monemvasia, ‘On the poor praying at the church of the Theotokos in the Chalkoprateia (BHG 1075d), ed. J. Wortley (Paris, 1987), 52‒3; Constantine Porphyrogennetos: The Book of Ceremonies, translated by Ann Moffatt and Maxeme Tall, with the Greek edition of the Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae (1829), 2 vols (Canberra, 2012), index, 852; E. Mamboury, Constantinople. Guide Touristique (Istanbul, 1925), 256; W. Lackner, ‘Ein byzantinisches Marienmirakel’, Byzantina 13/ii (1985); C. Mango, ‘Notes on Byzantine monuments II: frescoes in the octagon of St. Mary Chalkoprateia’, DOP (23‒24), 369‒72; idem, ‘The Chalkoprateia annunciation and the pre-eternal logos’, DCAE 17 (1993‒1994), 165‒70; S. Kirimtayif, Converted Byzantine churches in İstanbul. Their transformation into mosques and masjids (İstanbul, 2001), 89‒91; J. Freely and A. S. Çakmak, Byzantine Monuments of İstanbul (Cambridge, 2004), 62‒3; P. Gilles, The antiquities of Constantinople (London, 1729) repr. (1986), 113‒4; W. Müller-Wiener, Bildlexikon zur Topographie Istanbuls (Tübingen, 1977), 76‒8; M. Jugie, ‘Le église de Chalkoprateia et le culte de la ceinture de la Sainte Vierge à Constantinople’, EO 16 (1913), 308‒12; Ayverdi, Fatih Devri, 10‒1, 33; ODB, 407‒8; Öz Tahsin, Istanbul Camileri (Ankara, 1987), 18, n. 6; Ciggaar, ‘Description’, 10, 11, 12, index; W. Kleiss, ‘Neue Befunde zur Chalkopratenkirche in Istanbul’, IM 15 (1965), 149‒67; idem, ‘Grabungen im Bereich der Chalkopratenkirche in Istanbul 1965’, IM 16 (1966), 217‒40; G. Zulian, ‘Reconstructing the image of empress in middle Byzantine Constantinople: gender in Byzantium, Psellos’ empress Zoe and the chapel of Christ Antiphonites’, Rosetta 2 (2002); Kidon., 131‒3; P. Speck, Die Darstellungen in der Apsis der Chalkoprateia-Kirche, in Poikila Byzantina, Bd. VI, Varia 2 (Bonn 1987), 322–4; C. Konstantinidi, ‘Un miracle dans l’église de la Vierge de Chalkoprateia et ses conséquences sur l‟iconographie de l’ Annonciation’, Zograf 28 (2000/2001), 5–12; Bardill, Brickstamps of Constantinople, i, index, 416; C. Hennessy, The chapel of Saint Jacob at the church of the Theotokos Chalkoprateia in Istanbul’, in R. Matthews, J. Curtis (eds.), Proceedings of the 7th international congress on the archaeology of the ancient Near East, 12 April‒16 April 2010, the British Museum and UCL, London, (Wiesbaden, 2012), 351‒66; J. Bardill, ‘The palace of Lausus and nearby monuments in Constantinople: a topographical study’, AJA 101:1 (Jan. 1997), 67–95, 74, 78, 79; F. Bernard, Wrıtıng and reading Byzantine secular poetry, 1025‒1081 (Oxford, 2014), 191, index; M. Lidova, ‘The Chalkoprateia image of Annunciation and material evidence for a lost iconography’, www.academia.edu/26559126; J. Lowden, The Jaharis Gospel Lectionary. The story of a byzantine book (New York, 2009), index; F. Castellani, ‘La chiesa della Theotokos Chalkoprateia e l’immagine della Vergine Haghiosoritissa: indagine sulla nascita di un tipo iconografico tra Costantinopoli e Roma’, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia. Corso di laurea in Studi Storico Artistici. Cattedra di Storia dell’Arte bizantina (L-ART/01) (2015/6)=www.academia.edu/34505460; Kid., 132 n. 1533–40; Berger, 411. James, ‘The empress and the Virgin’, in Vassilaki, Images, 147 (disputed); eadem, Empresses and power, 150, n.17; Angelova, ‘Stamp of power’, 85.
St. Mary of the Blachernae[25] or the Hagiasma of the Blachernae=Theotokos Episkepsis
Church of Blachernae-The interior
Located near the shore of the Golden Horn[26], outside the city walls in the 14th Region[27] To protect the church, the emperor Heraclius built a defence wall around it. Later, when the palace of Blachernae[28] was erected further up on the slope of the hill, a special gate and stairway connected the church with the palace. Built and decorated by the Augusta Pulcheria and her husband, Marcian. The church was completed and embellished further by the emperor Leo I. He added the hagiasma and the hagion lousma (sacred bath). Leo I also built to the south of the sanctuary of the main church the parecclesion of the relics, known as the parecclesion of Hagia Soros to house the holy mantle, veil and girdle of the Virgin that had been brought from Palestine to Constantinople in 473. In addition it contained the venerated relics of many saints: Russian pilgrims of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries describe the relics and mention those of St. Patapius, St. Athanasius, St. Pantaleon and St. Anastasia. It was then that the church was endowed with large estates. The shrine was composed of three buildings: the main church, the parecclesion of the hagia soros and the hagion lousma (457‒74) and of St. John the Baptist of Studius. The hagion lousma, a domed structure communicating with the parecclesion, included the apodyton (vestry), the kolymbos (basin) and St. Photeinus. Its walls were decorated with icons, with that of the Virgin placed in a special niche. Every Friday the emperor bathed in the basin and the ritual at the bath is described in the ‘Book of Ceremonies’. Procopius writes that the emperor Justinian, during the reign of his uncle Justin I had altered and improved the original building. Procopius’s description suggests that the basilica was given a dome supported by columns forming a semicircle. Rebuilt in the reign of the emperor Justin I. Justin 11 added two arches (apsides) and made the church cruciform.This renovation is mentioned in two epigrams of the Palatine anthology. The church had relics of Theodore Stratelates and George and the maphorion; the latter was carried in battle in 1089 by Alexius and earlier by Romanus I. In 626, when Constantinople was besieged by the Avars the icon of the Virgin Blachernitissa was carried in a procession headed by the son of Heraclius and the patriarch Sergius[29] (610-38) and was credited with saving the city from the Avars. The Avars raised the siege and the saving of the City was attributed to the direct intervention of the Mother of God. The entire population gathered at the church with the famous icon and in an all-night vigil they sang standing the Akathistos Hymn in praise of the Virgin Mary The importance of the shrine is reflected in Heraclius’s Neara, which appoints a total of 74 persons to its service. It played a role during the Iconoclast crisis. Held the council of 754 which promulgated the decree against images. In the ‘Life of St. Stephen the Younger’ (wr.ca. 807)[30] (BHG 1666, 1667), it is recorded that the iconoclasts replaced the images of Christ, the Virgin and Saints with representations of trees, birds and animals. The disappearance of the historic icon of the Virgin, painted on wood and revetted with gold and silver, is dated to those years. In 834 the Feast of Orthodoxy commemorating the restoration of icons was celebrated there. Tradition has it that in 944 the image of Christ (known as the Holy Mandylion) and the letter of King Abgar were brought from Edessa and placed in the parecclesion of the church. Some feast-days such as the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (2nd February), the Feast of Orthodoxy (First Sunday of Lent), Good Friday, easter Tuesday, the ceremony for the Virgin’s Veil, the consecration of the church, the saving of the City from the Avars and the Persians, the Dormition of the Virgin and the event of the terrible earthquake of 740 were commemorated with special pomp at the church of Blachernae. Campaigning emperors are known to have carried an icon of the Panagia of Blachernae, whose image is attested in a great number of imperial seals. The emperor Romanus III Argyrus decorated with gold and silver the intrados of the arches. According to tradition, when Romanus III was renovating the church the icon of the Virgin was discovered hidden behind a wall in 1030. In 1070 a fire destroyed the church. Rebuilt by the emperors Romanus IV Diogenes, Michael VII Ducas, and by Andronicus Comnenus in 1184. After 1204 the shrine passed into the hands of the Latins until the emperor John III Ducas Vatatzes purchased it from the Catholics along with many other monasteries of Constantinople. In 1348 Genoese pirates caused damages to the shrine. Restored by John III Ducas Vatatzes possibly between 1223‒54. Repaired by the emperor Michael VIII. Place of marriage between John Palaiologus and Helena. Restored by the emperor Andronicus II– probably in the period between 1282‒1328. Information on the iconography and the general decoration of the church has been preserved in the writings of De Clavijo, who visited Blachernae in 1402, and in a later work entitled Lament on the disappearance of the splendid church, by Isidore of Kiev (1385‒1463). After the destructive fire of 1434 and the Fall of Constantinople, nothing remained from the shrine except for the site of the Sacred Spring. Today it remains in the right part of the church and has the ancient form, kolymbos and the tholos of Foteinos where there is nothing left of any Byzantine art. In 1434 the church was destroyed by a fire and the Ottomans found it deserted and used its material for the construction of their monuments. Gillius mentions that when he visited the church there was water flowing from the fountain of hagiasma. The place passed into Ottoman hands until 1867, when it was purchased by the guild of Greek Orthodox furriers, who built a small church containing the hagiasma; certain additions and the ancient sacred enclosure was given the aspect it has today. Future excavations in the wider area of the Panagia of Blachernae may lead to the discovery of the ruins of the great Byzantine church. One monolithic column was identified still in situ in its famous holy well, while others were found — along with column capitals — in the church grounds, and a large slab of worked marble was also found in the grounds, probably from a major building. From the complex of churches today exists in the northwestern corner of the old city an hagiasma the remainder of a previously located next to the church bath. A monastery of Hamaitzoukalou was situated close to the church. Around the church a modern church is built which bears the old name.
Pmbz, # index, 345; A. G. Paspates, Byzantinai Meletai Topographikai kai Historikai (Konstantinoupolis, 1877), 390-94; Du Cange, 130‒2; Janin2, 161‒71, 178, 500; idem, ‘Processions’, 74, 76, 83; Beck, 157, 262, 545, 766; Ebersolt, index, 158; Dukas. Decline and fall of Byzantium to the Ottoman Turks, trans. H. Magoulias (Detroit, 1975), 76; Berger, 534-42, index; Anthologia Graeca ad Palatini codicis fidem edita (Lipsiae, 1829), i. 2‒3; Bryennios, Histoire, tr. P. Gautier (Bruxelles, 1975), 233, 245, 249; Procopius, I. iii. 3; A. M. Schneider, ‘Die Blachernen’, Oriens 4 (1951), 82‒120; Patria, iii, 65, 75, 214; Manuel Holobolos: ed. M. Treu, Manuelis Holoboli orationes, I—II, Programm des königlichen Victoria-Gymnasiums zu Potsdam (Potsdam, 1906–7), 86.11‒25; Georges Pachymérès, Relations historiques I. Livres I–III, II. Livres IV–VI, ed. introduction et notes par A. Failler, trad. Fran. Par V. Laurent (Paris, 1984) [CFHB vol. 24/1]; II, 369.25‒27; Skyl., 318, 332; Berger, ‘Processions’, 81‒2, 84, 85, 86; V. Pentcheva, ‘Rhetorical images of the Virgin: the icon of the ‘usual miracle’ at the Blachernai’, RES 38 (2000), 34‒55; L. Ryden, ‘The vision of the Virgin at Blachernae and the feast of the Pokrov’, AB 94 (1976), 63‒82; Ciggaar, ‘Description’, 49; Mordtmann, 10, 15, 17, 19, 51, 56, 60, 61; De Cér., A. Vogt, 156-7; Moffatt, index, 852; E. A. Fisher, ‘Michael Psellos on the ‘Usual’ miracle at Blachernae, the law, and neoplatonism’, in . Byzantine religious culture. Studies in honor of Alice Mary Talbot, ed. D. Sullivan, E. Fisher, S. Papaioannou (Leiden, 2012), 187‒204; C. Mango, The art of the Byzantine empire 312‒1453. Sources and documents (Toronto, 1972; repr. 1986), 154‒5, 169; idem, ‘The Fourteenth region of Constantinople’, in Studien zur spätantiken und byzantinischen Kunst (Bonn, 1986), 1‒3; Majeska, 333‒7; ODB, 1, 293; Freely-Çakmak, 63; Müller-Wiener, 223‒4; Cod. 50; Arseven, İstanbul, 143‒5; A. Weyl Carr, ‘Court culture and cult icons in Middle Byzantine Constantinople’, in H. Maguire, Byzantine Court Culture, 81‒99; P. Gautier, ‘Le Synode de Blachernes (fin 1094). Étude prosopographique’, REB 29 (1971), 213‒84; V. Grumel, ‘’Le miracle habituel’ de Notre-Dame des Blachernes’, EO 34 (1931), 129‒46; idem, ‘Sur l’ episkepsis des Blachernes’, ÉO 29 (1930), 334‒6; Vryonis, 431; Atzemoglou, 37‒40; on the Life of St. Stephen the Younger, see ed./ tr. M. F. Auzépy, La vie d’ Étienne le Jeune par Étienne le Diacre (Aldershot, 1997); Eng. tr., A. M. Talbot, ‘Life of St. Stephen the Younger’, in Talbot ed, Byzantine defenders of images: eight saints’ lives in English translation (Washington DC, 1998), 9‒12; J.B. Papadopoulos, Les palais et les ég- lises des Blachernes (Thessaloniques 1928); La Vie d’ Étienne le Jeune par Étienne le Diacre. Introducion, édition et traduction par M. F. Auzépy (Aldershot, 1997), 221‒4; Reg. der Kaiserurkunden des oströmischen Reiches, 753b.o; Kidon., 129‒31; V. Laurent, ‘Les signataires du second synode des Blakhernes (Été 1285)’, EO 26 (1927), 129‒49; E. McGeer, J. Nesbitt, N. Oikonomides, Catalogue of Byzantine seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of art, vol. 5, The East (continued), Constantinople and environs, unknown locations, addenda, uncertain readings (Washington DC, 2005), 75‒6; Bardill, Brickstamps, i, index, 416; S. G. Mercati, ‘Due nuove memorie della basilica di S. Maria delle Blacherne’, Atti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia – Memorie III.1(1923), 23–30; A. Paribeni, ‘Separati in casa: i destini paralleli della chiesa e del palazzo delle Blacherne a Costantinopoli’, in Medioevo. La Chiesa e il Palazzo. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Parma, 20–24 settembre 2005, a cura di A.C. Quintavalle (Milano 2007), 357–68; A. Paliouras, The Church of Panagia of Blachernae, www.ec-patr.org/afieroma/churches/show.php?lang=en&id=02; A. Papadakis, ‚Gregory Palamas at the council of Blachernae, 1351‘, GRBS 10 (1969), 333‒42; C. Barber, ‚Movement and miracle in Michael Psellos’s account of the Blachernae icon of the Theotokos‘, in G. de Nie, T. F. X. Noble (eds.), Envisioning experience in late antiquity and the middle ages: dynamic patterns in texts and images (Farnham, 2012), 9‒22; X. A. Siderides, ‚Mihael Psellou logos epi ton en Blachernais gegonoti thaumati‘, Orthodoxia (Konstantinopel 1928); A. L. Delattre, ‚Sceau de Jean, diacre des Blachernes’, Florilegium Melchior de Vogüé (Paris 1909), 167‒75; Klein, ‘Sacred relics’, in Bauer, Visualisierungen, 87, n.57; ‘Life of Saint Bsil the Younger’=D. F. Sullivan, A. M. Talbot, S. McGrath, The Life of Saint Basil the Younger (Washington DC, 2014), index, 826; see L. Ryden, ‘The life of St. Basil the Younger and the date of the life of St. Andreas Salos’, in Okeanos, Essays presented to I. Ševčenko, ed. Mango and Pritsak, 568‒86; E. N. Papaioannou, ‘The ‘Usual miracle’ and the Unusual miracle: Psellos and the icons of Blachernai’, JÖB 51 (2001); B. V. Pentcheva, The sensual icon: space, ritual, and the senses in Byzantium (PA, 2010), 184‒91; C. Barber, ‘Movement and miracle in Michael Psellos’s account of the Blachernae icon of the Theotokos’, in G. De Nie, Th. F.X. Noble (eds.), Envisioning experience in late antiquity and the Middle Ages . dynamic patterns in texts and images (London, 2012), 9‒22.www.en.wikipedia.org/church_of_St._Mary_of_Blachernae_(Istanbul); J. Gordon Melton, Faiths across time: 5,000 years of religious history, vol. 1 (Santa Barbara, Oxford, 2014), no 452; Cod., 48; S. Birk, T. M. Kristensen& B. Poulsen (eds.), Using images in late antiquity (Oxford, 2014), 165; C. Mango, The origins of the blachernae shrine at Constantinople, in N. Cambi, E. Marin, Actes du XIIIe congrès international d’ archéologie chrétienne, vol. 2 (Roma, 1998), 61–76 (attributes foundation to empress Verina); Klein, 87; Kid., 130, n. 1498 (with Marcian); James, ‘The empress and the Virgin’, in Vassilaki, Images, 147; eadem, Empresses and power, 150, n. 17; Angelova, ‘Stamp of power’, 85.
Pulcheria[31] with Marcian (450‒7)[32]
St. Menas in Acropolis
According to ps.-Codinus and Nicephorus Callistus this church was constructed by the emperor Constantine. Berger rejects this as an early attribution. Ps.-Codinus says that Pulcheria and Marcian completed the building. Existed in the early fifth century. Replaced the temple of Poseidon or Zeus. Mentioned in the Notitia to have been situated in the 4th Region. According to the story of the translation of the relics of St. Olympiada (BHG 1376) the monastery which was founded close to St. Sophia was destroyed by the fire of the Nika revolt in 532. The nuns were established in St. Menas and remained for six years. In the ninth century the church was rich in relics. It possessed a chapel dedicated to St. Procopius where the Anonymous English traveler in 1190 saw the head of St. Menas and other relics of Victor and Vincent and the relics of St. Procopius. Visited by the anonymous English pilgrim in 1093. An oratory located in the church of St. Menas on acropolis housed some relics. Situated close to St. Sophia. Existed until the end of the empire.
Gilles, Antiquities, 120‒1; Patria, iv, 2; Cod., 37; Janin2, 333‒5, 443‒4; idem, ‘Processions’, 75; Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae, ed. O. Seeck, Notitia dignitatum (Berlin, 1876), 233; Ciggaar, ‘Description’, 8; H. Delehaye, ‘L’ invention des reliques de saint Ménas à Constantinople’, AB 29 (1910), 117‒50; Berger, 391‒4; ‘Vita of Olympias of Constantinople’ (BHG 1375), ed. H. Delehaye, in ‘Vita Sanctae Olympiadis’, AB 15 (1896), 409‒23; ‘Vita of Olympias of Constantinople (BHG 1375)’, tr. E. A. Clark, Jerome, Chrysostom and friends (New York, 1979), 127‒44; ‘Narratio on the translation of relics of Olympias’ (BHG 1376), tr. Clark, Jerome, Chrysostom, 145‒57; H. Delehaye, ‘L’invention des reliques de saint Ménas à Constantinople’, AnBoll 29 (1910), 117‒50. Cod., 37; James, Empresses and power, 150; eadem, in Vassilaki, Images of the Mother of God, 149.
Church and monastery of St. Mocius
Attributed to the emperor Constantine in the Patria and chronicles. With this building he replaced the temple of Zeus. St Mocius was the city’s main local saint. A church is attested in the period between 324‒37. Rebuilt either by the emperors Pulcheria and Marcian or by Justinian, before his accession. Existed as a station on the day of the dedication of the church of Theotokos of Sigma. The church is described in the context of the ceremony on Wesdnesday in the fourth week of Easter and the emperor’s proeleusis to the church. An attempted assault on the emperor Leo VI took place in the church on the day of the feast of Mocius in 902. Doubt has been cast over the historicity of the emperor’s alleged discontinuance of the practice and the clergy’s discontent at this decision leading to the story of the steward’s prediction of the emperor’s 10 year duration of his reign. Restored by Basil I after the earthquake of 869. In the aftermath of this renewal sources speak of a mon. of St. Mocius, which was perhaps added similar to the case of the mon. of the church of St. Euphemia to Petrion. A monastery is attested in the period between 976‒1025. The monastery is mentioned by its abbot in 1056 and 1094. Mentioned by Anthony and English Anonymous. Lastly mentioned by the Byzantine historian Choniates. A martyrium of St. Lucian (BHG 998) existed inside St. Mocius. John Palaiologus utilised the ruins in the end of the fourteenth century to repair the walls of the city close to the Golden Gate. No trace has been left of it today. Remains were seen by Gillius reportedly near a large cistern on the top of the seventh hill. Situated between the walls of Constantine and the Theodosian, west of the cistern of Mocius.[33] All its pillars were standing bearing the name of Mocius.
Janin2, 354‒8; Pmbz # index, 397; Cod., 37, 37‒8; Ebersolt, 74, 76; Mordtmann, 114; Ioannis Scylitzae, Synopsis historiarum, ed. H. Thurn (Berlin, 1973), 136, 152; tr. J. Wortley, John Skylitzes, A synopsis of Byzantine history, 811–1057 (Cambridge, 2010), 175; Berger, 635‒8, index; A. Van Millingen, Byzantine Constantinople: The walls of the city and adjoining historical sites (London, 1899), 136; Proc., I. iv. 27; Patria, ii, 110, iii, 3; ODB, 2, 1389‒90; De Cér., A. Vogt, 127‒8; on the monastery, see Ciggaar, ‘Description’, 52; Gilles, Antiquities, 204; F. Halkin, ‘Une passion de saint Mocius, martyr à Byzance’, AB 83 (1965), 5‒22; Haldon, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 289‒90; P. Magdalino, Constantinople médiévale (Paris, 1996), 62, n.67; ‚J. Bury, ‘The Ceremonial book of Constantine Porphyrogennetos. II. The ecclesiasical ceremonies of Book I’, EHR lxxxvii, July (1907), 417‒39, 421‒2; A. Berger, ‘Mokios und Konstantin der Große. Zu den Anfängen des Märtyrerkults in Konstantinopel’, in V. A. Leontaritou, K. A. Bourdara, E. S. Papagianni (eds.), Αντικήνσωρ. Τιμητικός τόμος Σπύρου Ν. Τρωιάνου (Athens, 2013), 165‒85; R. H. Dolley, ‘The date of the St. Mokios attempt on the life of the emperor Leo VI’, in Pagkarpeia. Mélanges Hénri Grégoire pt. 2 (1950), 231‒8; Angelova, ‘Stamp of power’, 98n.58.
St. Isaias
According to ps.-Codinus the emperors Marcian and Pulcheria erected a church dedicated to St. Isaias and another to St. Lawrence. The patriographers and chroniclers say that the relics of the prophet Isaias were transferred from Palestine to Constantinople (ca. fifth century) and deposed in the church of St. Lawrence. The church existed in the sixth century. Nomidis identified the church of St. Isaias with the Sheyh Murād mosque and the Pūr Kuyu mosque with the church of St. Lawrence. Mordtmann identifies the church of St. Isaias with the Pūr Kuyu mescidi. Situated close to the church of St. Lawrence. Visited by Anthony.
Ebersolt, 88; Cod., 48; Janin2, 139‒40; idem, ‘Le Petrion’, EO 36 (1937), 31‒51; Berger, 529‒32; Mamboury, 251, 373; F. Özgümüş, ‘İstanbul’da Kayıp Olduğu Sanılan İki Tarihi Eser:Şeyh Murad ve Kandiligüzel Mescidi’, 60.Yaşına Sinan Genim’e Armağan (İstanbul, 2005), 507‒15.
[1] ODB, 1, 173‒4.
[2] K. G. Holum, Theodosian empresses: women and imperial dominion in late antiquity (Berkeley, 1982).
[3] Situated west of the city. R. Janin, Constantinople byzantine. Développement urbain et répertoire topographique (Paris, 1964), 312 [=CB]
[4] ODB, 3, 2051‒2; C. Kelly (ed.), Theodosius II: rethinking the Roman empire in late antiquity (Cambridge, 2013); K. Holum, Theodosian empresses: women and imperial dominion in late antiquity (Berkeley, 1982).
[5]On the western side of Eyüp, Janin, CB, 461‒2; A. Taddei, ‘A journey of men and names: Constantinople’ Kosmidion and its Italian replicas’, Convivium 1 (2014), 20‒31; N. Özaslan, ‘From the shrine of Cosmidion to the shrine of Eyüp Ensari’, GRBS 40 (1999 ), 379‒99.
[6] Janin, CB, 454.
[7] Kelly (ed.), Theodosius II: rethinking the Roman empire, 136, 277.
[8] Kelly (ed.), Theodosius II: rethinking the Roman empire, index, 315; K. M. Klein, ‘Aelia Eudokia as pilgrim and patroness in the eastern Mediterranean’, in Female founders and beoynd, 87‒95; C. Connor, eadem, ‘Women and artistic patronage Anicia Juliana’ in eadem, Women of Byzantium (New Haven , 2004), 94‒117.
[9] Janin, CB, 372‒3.
[10] ODB, 3, 1757‒8; K. Chew, ‘Virgins and eunuchs: Pulcheria, politics and the death of emperor Theodosius II’, Historia 55 (2006), 207‒27; K. Cooper, ‚Contesting the Nativity: wives, virgins, and Pulcheria’s imitatio Mariae‚, The Scottish Journal of Religious Studies 19.1 (1998), 31-43; for churches, see K. A. Zafeiris, The Synopsis Chronike and its place in the Byzantine Chronicle tradition: its sources (Creation‒1081 CE) (D.Phil Univ. St. Andrews, 2007), 104.
[11] Janin, CB, 441‒2. A location beside the Golden Horn in the modern Unkapanı. F. Du Cange, Seu Descriptio urbis sub Imperatoribus Christianis oum fiburis templi S. Sophiae et aliis accedunt additamenta ad eamdem Constantinopolim Christianam Itemque de hebdomo Constantinopoli- tano Disquisito Topographica ubri quatuor (Venedig, 1680, 1729), 180; On the quarter, see A. Mordtmann, Equisse topographique de Constantinople (Lille, 1892), 5 [=Mordtmann], 76; Berger, 486‒7; Y. Helvaci, ‘Zeugma revisited: a post-processual reinterpreation of the domestic mosaic of Zeugma’, (MA thesis, Koç Univ., 2013); G. Prinzing and P. Speck, ‘Fünf lokalitäten in Konstantinopel: Das Bad Konstantinianai, die Paläste Konstantianai und ta Konsta, das Zeugma, das Eptaskalon’, in Studien zur Früchgeschichte Konstantinopels, ed. H. G. Beck (Munich, 1973), 179‒81.
[12] Took its name probably from the early fifth-century Flavius Constans, magister militum of Thrace in 412; PLRE II, 311; Janin, CB, 372. Prinzing and Speck, ‘Fünf Lokalitäten’, in Beck (ed.), Studien zur Frühgeschichte Konstantinopels.
[13] R. Macrides, J. Munitiz, D. Angelov (eds.), Pseudo-Kodinos and the Constantinopolitan court: offices and ceremonies (Farnham, 2013), index, 509‒10 [=Pseudo-Kodinos].
[14] Pseudo-Kodinos, index, 524.
[15] J.– C. Cheynet and J.–F. Vannier, Études prosopographiques (Paris, 1986), 156‒8.
[16] ODB, 1, 218‒9.
[17] Janin, CB, 435. South of the Arcadianai, near the sea shore, a little lower than the palace and the monastery of Mangana. Berger, 381‒3, index.
[18] Polo ground of the palace. Janin, CB, index, 529; Berger, 369‒71.
[19] Janin, CB, 297.
[20] Ch. Angelidi, ‘Un texte patriographique et édifiant: Le ‘Discours narratif’sur le Hodègoi’, REB 52 (1994), 113‒49, 135.
[21] R. Rieder, Für die Türkei. Selbstgelebtes und Gewolltes (Jena, 1903), 5‒7.
[22] Du Cange, 122‒3; Patria, iii, 128; Janin, CB, 112‒3, 335, index, 525; R. Guilland, Études de topographie de Constantinople byzantine (Berlin‒Amsterdam, 1969), 184; S. Miranda, ‘Étude sur le palais sacré de Constantinople. Le Walker Trust et le palais de Daphné’, BSl 44 (1983), 41‒9, 196‒204; Moffatt, index, 863.
[23] Berger, 411‒4; Janin, CB, 328, index, 530.
[24] Mordtmann, 5.
[25] Janin, CB, 324, index, 518; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blachernae; A. Paribeni, ‘Il quartiere delle Blacherne a Costantinopoli, in Milion’, Studi e ricerche d‟arte bizantina. Atti della giornata di studio, Roma, 4 dicembre 1986, vol. I, a cura di C. Barsanti, A. Guiglia Guidobaldi, A. Iacobini (Roma 1988), 215–24; J. Niehoff-Panagiotidis, ‘Βλαχέρναι-ein dorischer Flurname In Konstantinopel, Zeugnis der Stadtgeschichte’, in N. Asutay-Effenberger-F. Daim, Filopation. Spaziergang im kaiserlichen Garten. Beiträge zu Byzanz und seinen Nachbarn. Festschrift für A. Effenberger zum 70. Geburtstag (Mainz, 2012), 157‒63.
[26] Mordtmann, index, 82; A.M. Schneider, ‘Mauern und Tore am Goldenen Horn im Konstantinopel’, in NAWG 5(1950), 65–107; A. Berger,’ Zur Topographie der Ufergegend am Goldenen Horn in der byzantinischen Zeit’, IM 45 (1995), 149‒65; On the importance of the Golden Horn as a commercial centre in the eleventh century, see P. Magdalino, ‘The maritime neighborhoods of Constantinople: commercial and residential functions, sixth to twelfth centuries’, DOP 54 (2000), 209–26, 219ff.; F. Dirimtekin, Halic surları (The Wall of the Golden Horn) (Istanbul 1956).
[27] E. Mamboury, Constantinople. Guide Touristique (Istanbul, 1925), 71; Mordtmann, 15; C. Mango, ‘Le mystère de la XIVe région de Constantinople’, T&M 14 (2002), 449‒55.
[28] F. Tinnefeld, ‘Der Blachernenpalast in Schriftquellen der Palaiologenzeit’, in Lithostroton. Studien zur byzantinischen Kunst und Geschichte. Festschrift für Marcell Restle, hrsg. B. Borkopp, T. Steppan (Stuttgart, 2000), 277–85; A. Paribeni, ‘Separati in casa: i destini paralleli della chiesa e del palazzo delle Blacherne a Costantinopoli’, in Medioevo. La Chiesa e il Palazzo. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Parma, 20–24 settembre 2005, a cura di A.C. Quintavalle (Milano 2007), 357–68; S. Runciman, ‘Blachernae? Palace and its decoration’ in Studies in Memory of David Talbot Rice (Edinburgh, 1975), 277‒83; J. B. Papadopoulos, Le palais et les églises des Blachernes (Thessaloniki, 1928). R. J. Macrides, ‘The ‘other’ palace in Constantinople: the Blachernai’, in M. J. Featherstone, J. M. Spieser, G. Tanmam, U. Wulf-Rheidt (eds.), The emperor’s house. Palaces from Augustus to the age of absolutism (Berlin, 2015), 159‒68. N. Asutay-Effenberger, ‘The Blachernai palace and its defense’, in in S. Redford/ N. Ergin (ed.), Cities and citadels in Turkey: from the Iron Age to the Seljuks (Leuven, 2013), 253‒76. F. Schrijver, ‘Daily life at the Blachernai palace. The servants of the imperial bedchamber (1261–1354), in A. Ödekan, N. Necipoğlu, E. Akyürek,
The Byzantine court: source of power and culture, Second International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine studies symposium proceedings (Istanbul, 21–23 June 2010) (Istanbul, 2013), 83–8.
[29] ODB, 3, ‘Sergios I’, 1878.
[30] A. M. Talbot, Byzantine defenders of images: eight saints’ lives in English translation (Washington DC, 1998), 9‒10; on him, see Hatlie, index, 547.
[31] Ch. Angelide, Pulcheria: la castità al potere (c.399–c.455) (Milan, 1998).
[32] ODB, 2, 1296‒7.
[33] Mordtmann, index, 82; Janin, CB, 205.