The Discovery of the Reliquary of Saint Trophimos in 1907

Introduction

The discovery of the Reliquary of Saint Trophimos at Chouhout Kassaba, the site of ancient Synnada in Phrygia, in 1907 provided an important piece of archaeological and epigraphic evidence for the study of early Christianity in Asia Minor. The small marble reliquary, fashioned in the form of an architectural sarcophagus, was discovered together with human cranial bones. Its subsequent study and publication by Gustave Mendel in his 1909 Catalogue des monuments grecs, romains et byzantins du Musée Impérial Ottoman de Brousse opened an important discussion concerning the date of the monument, the antiquity of the veneration of the martyrs, and the degree to which Christian communities in Asia Minor expressed their faith during the period of Roman persecution.

The discovery itself belongs to the archaeological history of the late Ottoman Empire. The reliquary was not uncovered by a Western archaeological expedition, but first came to official attention through Ottoman administrative and museum channels. According to the official report preserved by Mendel, the reliquary was discovered by a local inhabitant of Chouhout, Chaban-oghlou Hallil, while searching for stones in a field near the town. Ottoman authorities subsequently dispatched Achmet tchélebi effendi, president of the local commission of public instruction and conservator of the local branch of the Imperial Museum, to investigate the discovery together with the mudir. The objects were then sent through the Ottoman museum system and entered the collections of the Museum at Bursa, where Mendel examined and published the reliquary in 1909.

The Community of Saint John the Forerunner on Antigone Island

Antigone is the second inhabited island of the Propontis after Prinkipo (Büyükada), when coming from Istanbul, and is the second in size in the group. It is covered with pine trees and has an area of approximately 1,500 square meters. Its Turkish name is “Burgaz,” meaning “fortress” or “wall.”

In the center of the island's inhabited area stands the magnificent Church of Saint John the Forerunner. According to tradition, it was built around 841 by the Empress Theodora over the crypt of Saint Methodios the Confessor. Following the Fall of Constantinople, the church was renovated twice, in 1759 and again in 1817. On June 28, 1894, during the great earthquake, the church was split in two and could no longer be repaired. The people of Antigone undertook a major effort to rebuild their church and organized a collection among themselves. Eventually, through the generous donation of the great benefactor Demetrios Pantziris, and with his son-in-law Nikolaos Dimadis serving as architect—he was the son of Konstantinos Dimadis, the architect of the Great School of the Nation—the magnificent Church of Saint John the Forerunner was erected. The church was consecrated on July 11, 1899, with the Patriarch of Constantinople Neophytos presiding over the ceremony; he was serving at Antigone at the time.

The Feast of Lights in Aivali (Photios Kontoglou)

 

 

The Feast of Lights in Aivali 

By Photios Kontoglou

In seaside places they throw the Cross into the sea after the Divine Liturgy of Theophany. That is how they used to do it in my homeland too, and it was a beautiful and strange sight.

The procession would set out from the cathedral. In front went the exapteriga and banners, and after them the priests with the bishop, dressed in their golden vestments — many priests and archimandrites, because the town had twelve churches, and on feast days the smaller parishes would finish the Liturgy quickly and their priests would go to the cathedral, so that the celebration might be more solemn. The chanters were many as well, the best-voiced among them, and they chanted Byzantine — that is, Greek — music with majesty, not like today, when we have gone mad and turned our chanting into tasteless, foreign theatrical songs. Behind them followed a great crowd of people.

When they reached Angelí Beach, as that shore was called, the bishop and the priests would ascend a large wooden platform, beautifully constructed, to perform the Sanctification of the Waters. The people filled the shoreline and climbed wherever they could in order to see. The surrounding houses were packed with spectators. Women burned incense from the windows. On the sea side, there were gathered nearly a hundred caiques and countless small boats, with their prows turned toward the place where the bishop stood. Arrayed in this way, the boats looked like a fleet about to go to war. Farther out toward the open sea, you could see the large caiques anchored, also full of people. Others had encircled the boats near the shore, and they too were crowded — mostly sailors and children.

The Location Where the Miracle of the Archangel Michael in Chonae Took Place

By Vasilisa Phillips-Pohil

The ancient city of Colossae is probably known to every Orthodox Christian in one way or another. It was here, on the territory of modern Turkey, that an unprecedented miracle occurred.

In this city, to whose residents the Apostle Paul once wrote, there was a church in the name of Archangel Michael, built by a local resident in gratitude to the Archangel for healing his daughter at a healing spring that flowed nearby. A pious man, Archippus, served as a sexton at this church for 60 years. With his righteous life, he converted many to Christianity.

At that time, Christianity was not yet officially recognized, and many pagans were irritated by the fact that people flocked to the Venerable Archippus and converted to faith in Christ. Then the "wicked people," as Saint Dimitri of Rostov tells us, decided to destroy the temple: they united two mountain rivers into one channel and directed their flow towards the church. The Venerable One refused to leave the holy place and began to pray to the Archangel Michael to save the temple from destruction. And then a miracle happened. The Archangel Michael appeared in front of the church, stopped the flow of water with the sign of the cross, and then cut it in two with a blow of his staff on a stone. All the water flowed into the resulting hole. From then on, the city received a new name - Chonae, which means "fissure" or "hole."

When a Turkish Television Host Investigated Mysterious Foreboding Sounds Coming from an Orthodox Church

In December 1998, a few months before the great earthquake in Turkey on August 17th 1999, the island of Burgaz among the Princes' Islands, known as Antigone in Greek, was shaken by an amazing event. This island was once completely Greek, but today there are a few Greeks and Turks from various parts of Turkey. The island has an Orthodox church, which is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, which can be clearly seen as you approach the island by sea from Constantinople (Istanbul).

During that time, every night outside the church and throughout the surrounding area, a deep breath of anguish could be heard, rising and falling as if sighing. It was a great sigh. The Turkish residents of the area were worried but could not explain the phenomenon. Some even went so far as to take stethoscopes and, after approaching the outer walls of the church, tried to uncover the source of these resonant sighs that had disturbed them.

An Ominous Message Found at the Entrance to the Recently Excavated 5th Century Byzantine Church?

Archaeologists in Turkey recently excavated the ruins of a fifth-century Christian church with a message that hasn’t been seen in over 1,000 years.

The excavation took place at Olympus, an ancient Lycian port city in Turkey’s Antalya province, according to Anadolu Agency (AA), a state-run news outlet in Ankara.

The city has been excavated continuously since 2006, but during the recent season, archaeologists uncovered multiple mosaic floors, along with large storage jars called pithoi.

Excavator Gokcen Kurtulus Oztaskin, an associate professor at Pamukkale University, told AA that the site “continues to surprise us with its mosaics.”

The Church of Saint Anna in Trebizond

The Church Saint Anna (Greek: Ἁγία Άννα, Turkish: Küçük Ayvasıl Kilisesi) is the earliest of the churches that survive today in the Turkish city of Trebizond (Trabzon), dating to the 6th or 7th century. It has not seen service in over a century, but has recently (2021-22) been thoroughly restored. With whitewash removed, all remaining fresco's have now become visible. The church is accessible to the public free of charge during daytime hours. 

It is a monument directly linked to the actions of officials, who at various times contributed to its renovation or made simple donations. The importance of the church is also underlined by its timelessness: for about 700 years, from the 9th to the 15th century, interventions and donations were made to it, as the inscriptions testify.

The cemetery character - tombs and inscriptions that commemorate the date of death of specific persons - dominates in Saint Anna. The same is true of other, very important churches in Trebizond: in Hagia Sophia, in Theoskepastos, in Chrysokefalo. However, if the last three monuments are intertwined with the local imperial dynasty of the Great Komnenoi, Saint Anna seems to constitute the funerary institution of local officials.

May Day in Aivali (Photios Kontoglou)

May Day in Aivali

By Photios Kontoglou

When did spring arrive and adorn the earth like a bride! Everywhere is lushness and freshness. Where there were just barren lands, you now see greenery; where you once saw dry soil scorched by the northern winds, you now find a carpet woven with a thousand colors. The wild rocks are embellished as if by the hand of some painter. All of nature rejoices. Every living creature becomes more enlivened, and those that were not alive are brought to life.

Birds sing, butterflies and golden orioles, and various kinds of insects flutter or walk upon the ground. The swallows have arrived from warm regions and are hastily building their nests; the storks stand atop the domes of the church on one leg, tapping their beaks. The sea calms and invites people to refresh themselves.

The Church of Saint Antipas in Pergamum Through the Centuries

The Temple of Saint Antipas as it was from 1919-1922.

In the Book of Revelation we are first introduced to Saint Antipas, who Christ reveals to Saint John the Evangelist and Theologian as one of His faithful martyrs in Pergamum. It is believed that Saint Antipas was the first Bishop of the city of Pergamum, which in his time was described in Revelation as "where Satan dwells," due to its deep roots in paganism. 

 

To the west of the Acropolis, the Selinus River (modern Bergamaçay) flows through the city, and in his biography we are told that it was from this river that the martyred body of Saint Antipas was found by Christians after being roasted in a bronze bull, and they buried him with honors.

Not many years later, a huge cult complex known as the Serapeum was built at the foot of the Acropolis to the Egyptian gods during the time of Emperor Hadrian (117-138), a gift to the city of Pergamum, which Rome conquered peacefully. The last King of Pergamum, Attalus III, called Philometor, reigned for five years from 138 to 133 BC. He was the son of Eumenes II Soter and Stratonice and during his tenure he distinguished himself more as a botanist than as a king. When he died, he was childless and bequeathed his territory to the Roman state on the condition that Pergamum's autonomy be maintained.

Memories of Gangra of Paphlagonia Before the Population Exchange of 1922

Church of Saint Hypatios in Gangra before 1922.

By Antonios Dorikidis

Gangra or Gangrai was in ancient times the capital of Paphlagonia which flourished in the Byzantine era.

Earlier, around 215 AD under the Emperor Caracalla (188-217) it had issued its own coins with Greek letters.

In the years of Constantine the Great (273-337), the Bishop of Gangra was Hypatios, who had taken part in the First Ecumenical Synod against the heresy of Arius along with other God-bearing Fathers of the Orthodox Church. He lived until the time of Constantine II (316-340), son of Constantine the Great, and suffered a martyr's death by stoning by the heretics and is honored as a Saint by the Orthodox Church.

In the middle of the 4th century (340-370), a local synod was convened in Gangra, which was directed against the Metropolitan of Sebaste Eustathios and his followers, who were called Eustathians.

The Last Legacy of the Byzantine Period in the Turkish Capital: The Church of Saint Clement of Ancyra

The Church of Saint Clement (Aziz Klemens Kilisesi) is located in the Altındağ district of Ankara. It was built in the 4th century and dedicated to Saint Clement, the bishop of the city of Ancyra at that time. Although it is known that other churches, monasteries and cathedrals were built in different years during the Eastern Roman period, it is considered the only Byzantine church in Ankara because it is the only example that has survived to the present day. The only remaining parts of the building, which was converted into a mosque during the Ottoman period but was completely abandoned after it burned down during the Ankara Fire in 1916, are one wall and a marble block with a Latin cross. The horizontal arms of the cross have been removed.  A few saved column capitals and window frames are exhibited in the Roman Bath Open Air Museum. Today the church is in danger of completely disappearing.

The Veneration of Saint Kyriaki in Pontus

Fresco from the end of the 13th century. Saint Kyriaki depicted as a Byzantine princess (located in the Church of Saint George in Angona, Ormidia, Cyprus).

Saint Kyriaki was born and lived in Nicomedia of Asia Minor, a Greek city just 100 km outside of Constantinople. She was the fruit of the prayers of her until then childless parents Dorotheos and Eusevia. Because she was born on a Sunday (Kyriaki in Greek), which is the Lord's Day, and her pious parents took it as a sign from God, therefore they baptized her with the name Kyriaki, dedicating her to the Lord.

The name Kyriaki – Kereki in Pontic – was common in Pontus and Asia Minor. The Holy Virgin Martyr, of Asia Minor origin, was very beloved throughout Pontus, to the point that in several places the month of her feast, July, was also called Ai-Keriakitis. And when they wanted to declare that there were extreme hot conditions, they used to say "T' Ae-Kerekis t' apsimon" ("the fire of Saint Kyriaki"), obviously from the heat that prevails at the beginning of July but also from the martyrdom by fire suffered by the great Saint, though the grace of God left her unscathed.

Hypatius of Rufinianae and the Christianization of Rural Bithynia c. 443-446

 

 

 

Church of Saint Theodore the Tiro in Derinkuyu of Cappadocia

The Church of Saint Theodore the Tiro (Aziz Theodoros Trion kilisesi in Turkish)) is located in Malakopi (today’s Derinkuyu) near the Cappadocian underground city. On the top of the entrance of the church, the inscription says:

“This sacred Church of Saint Theodore of Tiro has been built under the auspice of the Parishah Sultan Abdülmecid Han, with the blessing of Aziz Matropolitan Neophytos of Iconium Efendi and thanks to the donations of the Christian inhabitants of Malakopi, under the direction of the architect Kyriakos Papadopoulos Efendi from Chaldia. The church has been blessed and consecrated to Saint Theodore. Saint Theodore bless the country and protect it from dangers. Amen. Year 1858 May 15.”