| Byzantium |
Byzantium - Constantinople in the year 667 b.c. the legendary Byzas from the Greek city of Megara, after consulting the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, founded the seaport of Byzantium at the entrance of the Black Sea. In the second half of the fourth century b.c. King Philip II of Macedon (382336 B.C.) and his son Alexander the Great (356323 B.C.) dominated Byzantium early in the course of their conquests. This vast Alexandrian Empire stretched from the Orient to Greece. After Alexander's death the territory was divided among Alexander's Generals. This Eastern Roman state was to endure in greater and lesser forms until the fifth century A.D. Constantine I, Flavius Valerius Constantinus (293 - 363), The Great, first Christian Roman Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, consolidated the Western and Eastern Empires, and moved his capital from Rome to Constantinople, on the site of the Greek city of Byzantium. This strategic location on an easily fortified peninsula and at the crossroads of land and sea routes lent quick response by the Imperial armies to trouble spots in the Eastern Empire. For the same reasons, and Constantine's patronage of the Arts, it became a haven for merchants and trade in general. This birthed the 'First Golden Age' of Byzantium (324730). To this day virtually the only sources of Classical Greek Literature are the Byzantine school books from their highly developed education system. The Feastday of St. Constantine The Great is celebrated on May 21 along with his mother, St. Helena. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 officially established the division of the Christian world into five patriarchates, or areas overseen by a patriarch, in order of precedence: Rome (the patriarch there later calling himself the pope), Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. In the seventh century the empire lost Syria, the Holy Land, Egypt, and North Africa to invading Islamic armies. Some commerce, including that of Pilgrims, was permitted at various times with the Holy Land. The century old vicious Church controversy over devotional religious images called icons concluded in the Icon's favour in 843. Monasticism grew by leaps and bounds proliferating the veneration of Icons. Nearby Mt. Athos Monastery became the Eastern center of the movement. In the tenth century the conversion of the Bulgarians and the Rus' to Christianity was well underway. Key to these successes were the brothers Cyril and Methodius who translated Byzantine Christian writings into the Slavic dialect, thus creating the first Slavic alphabet, the first Slavic literary language (called Old Church Slavonic), and the first Slavic literature.
Constantinople, built by Constantine The Great in the fourth century was expanded and rebuilt many times over the centuries. It was, then and now, residence of the Emperors and the civil administrative hub of the Eastern Empire. The emperor Justinian (483565), a prodigious builder as well as conqueror, left his finest memorial: the domed church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), which was constructed in just five years (53237).
Holy Wisdom to occupy the site replacing those burned during riots in 404 and 532. The architects use of a round dome over the essentially square church plan was a monumental breakthrough in construction techniques indicative of churches. Hagia (Saint) Sophia was to become one of the most revered Pilgrimage sites, and still is. It was rebuilt in 859 after yet another fire and in 989 after a great earthquake. known as Megalè Ekklèsia or Magna Ecclesia (Great Church). It was constructed next to the smaller church Hagia Eirene, both acting together as the principal churches of the Eastern Christians.
begun by Constantine The Great, was completed by his son Constantine II who interred his father's remains there. It is second only to Hagia Sophia among the great churches of the Eastern Empire. Of the Relics of the Twelve Apostles, which Constantine The Great planned, only those (being the skulls) of Saint Andrew, Saint Luke and Saint Timothy were acquired. Thence the later assumption that the church was dedicated to these three only. It also contains part of the "Column of Flagellation", to which Jesus had been bound and flogged. St. Helena She is credited with the identification and discovery of the True Cross in Jerusalem while in her eighties, ca. 326. She built churches;e.g. the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, founded institutions and ensconced many Relics in Jerusalem. She also brought back to Byzantium and Rome many Relics of Christ prime among them are fragments of the Holy Cross and the Holy Stairs which Jesus climbed to Pontius Pilate's Judgement still evidencing drops of Jesus' Blood. St Basil the Confessor St. Theodore Teron Died 306. Feastday: February 17. Has many apellations besides Teron (meaning of Tyre): The Great Martyr, The Recruit, Tyro, of Amasea. He was one of the Military Martyrs often depicted on horseback bearing a lance and killing a dragon/devil/crocodile. Betimes he is shown fighting a devil while mounted on a ladder, legend unknown. He was a Roman soldier imprisoned, tortured and burned at the stake for refusing to disavow his conversion to Christianity.
Julian the Apostate (361-363) attempting to disrupt the Lenten ceremonies had all the food in the market sprinkled with blood from the pagan sacrifices. St. Theodore appeared to Archbishop Eudoxios of Constantinople instructing him not to allow any food purchases in the market but rather to instruct the Christians to eat cooked wheat with honey (kolyva). This Miracle is still observed on the first saturday of Lent with the eating of kolyva. |
| Crusade to Jerusalem Nov 3-5, 2007 |
| Hosted by the Canton of Mathom Trove |
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| Constantine's conversion to Christianity is credited to a vision he had of the Christian Chi/Rho sigil, being the first two letters of Christ in Greek, accompanied by a celestial voice portending "In This Sign Conquer" which became his seal and sigil, sometimes incorporated with the Greek letters Alpha and Omega. This became his Labarum or sigil. |
| The Walls of Constantinople, initially built by Constantine The Great, completely surrounds the city on all sides. The double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. They are one of the greatest and most complex fortification systems ever built making the city virtually impregnable from both land and sea. |
| The mother of Constantine the Great,ca. 250 - 330. Feast day 18 August Roman, Eastern: May 21 along with her son, St. Constantine The Great. She was originally buried in the Imperial Tomb in the Church of the Holy Apostles. It is presumed that her remains were transferred in 849 to the Abbey of Hautvillers, in the French Archdiocese of Reims. Helena and Constantine are often pictured together |
| died ca. 747. Feastday February 28 Gregorian, March 18 Julian. Imprisoned & tortured by Emperor Leo III,The Isaurian(675–741, ruled 717–741) for venerating Icons. Upon Leo's death he was released and returned to his Monastery. Highly revered throughout Eastern Europe. |
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