Inside Islam: A Guide for Catholics

(Jacob Rumans) #1

won a great victory over Christian forces at Varna. Soon
thereafter they were in a position to take one of the greatest
prizes of all: Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern
Roman Empire and the second See of Christendom, the
home of what was then the grandest church in the world —
the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, or Hagia Sophia.


The siege of Constantinople went on for several
months, as the defenders of the great city held out against
incredible odds. But it was only a matter of time given the
strength and size of the Muslim forces. During a procession
around the city, a famous and treasured icon of the Mother
of God fell to the ground, and it took five men to restore it
to its position; many took this as a sign that divine favor was
leaving the city. In any case, Constantinople fell on
Tuesday, May 29, 1453. Greeks still consider Tuesdays bad
luck.


The victorious warriors entered the Hagia Sophia,
where the faithful had gathered to pray during the city’s last
agony. They interrupted the Liturgy — Greek legend has it
that the priests took the sacred vessels and disappeared into
the cathedral’s eastern wall, from where they shall return to
complete the Divine Liturgy when the building is a church
again — and killed everyone they could. The Hagia Sophia
became a mosque (today it is a museum, although Muslims
— but not Christians — are still allowed to pray there).
Hundreds of other churches suffered the same fate. But even
then the advance was not over.


The Turks   besieged    Belgrade    in  1456    and even    tried   to
Free download pdf