This is the Emperor Constantine XII's reply to the Turk Mehmet when he demanded that the citizens of The City surrender.
Posted on 05/30/2006 2:44:30 PM PDT by eleni121
As the E.U., U.N. and U.S. contrive to fund the Palestinian Authority despite declarations that they would never aid Hamas; as the Russians rush to aid Iran’s nuclear ambitions; and as America is ever more riven by furious disagreement over the prosecution of the terror war, a historical analogy is useful to put things in perspective.
On Tuesday, May 29, 1453, the armies of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II entered Constantinople, breaking through the defenses of a vastly outnumbered and indomitably courageous Byzantine force.
(Excerpt) Read more at frontpagemag.com ...
Ping your lists.
Fall of The City ping.
"The jihadists also entered the Hagia Sophia, which for nearly a thousand years had been the grandest church in Christendom. The faithful had gathered within its hallowed walls to pray during the city’s last agony. The Muslims, according to Runciman, halted the celebration of Orthros (morning prayer); the priests, according to legend, took the sacred vessels and disappeared into the cathedral’s eastern wall, through which they shall return to complete the divine service one day. Muslim men then killed the elderly and weak and led the rest off into slavery."
When I was a little boy, my grandparents told me this story as a bedtime story. Coupled with the fact that I have ancestors who died on the walls of The City right at the very side of the the Emperor Constantine XI Paleologos, the part about the priests vanishing into the wall of the apse made a great impression on me. Funny, all these years later I still hope, and believe at least to some extent, that I'll be there when those priests emerge from the wall.
Long-term objective: the restoration of Hagia Sophia for Christian worship on the 1500th anniversary of its consecration (Dec 27, 537). And not by making this a condition for admission of Turkey to the EU/Vierte Reich/Troisieme Empire.
I still hope, and believe at least to some extent, that I'll be there when those priests emerge from the wall.
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I believe it as well. The image of this is hauntingly sublime.
I remember visiting Haghia Sophia with my parents as a child and I'll never forget putting my hand inside the hoofmarks of the horses on the columns of the church. It really shook that lil kid up. I'm praying for it's return some day as well.
I am sure that they will, one day. Why doesn't the West demand that St. Sophia be returned to the Greeks? Or are we the only ones that need to surrender?
The West! We'll get absolutely nothing from "The West" except perhaps what it gave Serbia a few years back! Times have changed since Harry Truman saved Greece.
" Funnny that you mention that. My mom's from Sparta and all I ever hear is how Winston Churchill saved Greece over the idiocy of FDR."
LOL! I've heard the same thing from my people. We're from about 30 miles as the crow flies from Sparta, NW of Taegetos in Arcadia. I was in Sparta a year ago this month. Tell your mother the old place is looking pretty good these days. The road from Tripolis has been upgraded and it looks like there will be a brand new road from Megalopolis over to Sparta within 2-3 years.
And that attitude is exactly why Constantinople fell in the first place.
ping
It's an incredible experience to see Aghia Sophia.
It was for me as well.
How wonderful it would be to be able to experience a Christian liturgy again there. But you know how Muslims are---they cannot abide Christian worship among them...and even though it actually is still standing much damage has been done to the interior and restorations are going very slowly if at all these last years. Turks do not want to allow any removal of islamic phrases to be erased which might lead to the uncovering of the Christ figure on the dome. No one really knows if it's still there but only could be seen if the islamic words were erased. Needless to say this is not happening.
Hypocrites aren't they..on one hand they proclaim it a museum (Ataturk in the 1930s). OTOH nothing restorative can be done in case it would offend muslims.
I cannot believe that happened. It worked when I first posted it.
Yes, very sad indeed
The West? If you mean the Europeans, it is a wonder they haven't offered to give the Muslims St Peter's, accompanied by the plea, "Please don't hit us."
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