Hagia Sophia, Holy Wisdom, towers over Constantinople today, perhaps the most magnificent of Roman buildings, Imperial power set in stone under the sovereignty of Christ. Today this Cathedral overlooking the Bosphorus is a mosque.
Western Christendom, this is on you. You could have rallied to our eastern brothers and beat back the Moslem, barbarian horde. But no, First Crusade outstanding, you took a different path. The result is before us, Islam controls the Bosphorus under NATO aegis and GloboHomo apostasy grips the West.
Let's have that back, Hagia Sophia, Ἁγία Σοφία, and tell me, which Christian army's going to take it? The British, French, Germans, US and GloboHomo? Or some other force. Stand against that, when it comes and it will, at your peril.
Russia, you'll have noticed, has banned trans surgery.
Άγιος,
LSP
It would be nice if Islam returned it, but usually getting anything back from Islam requires a war. Would the building be destroyed in the process? I'm sure that it would.
ReplyDeleteRussia is a generally conservative place these days and the WEF doesn't like that. As you know, I'm not a fan of Russia, but I call them as I see them. Putin was goaded into attacking Ukraine and he took the bait.
LL, it'd have to be the kind of war which saw the Byzantine Governor of Egypt, Cyrus, hand over to the Saracens. That'd save the cathedral. Is such a thing likely? To your point, not very. I fear we missed our chance back at the end of WWI, or something like that.
ReplyDeleteIt's said Attaturk was willing to give the church back to the Patriarch but didn't because he feared it'd cause a civil war. Who knows, perhaps the Spirit will move on the Golden Horn once more and Christ will be worshiped there again, but for now it's a mosque. Christendom misplayed that badly, eh?
Then there's Russia. I'm no expert but I'd say "goaded" is right. Let's see how this plays out, high stakes for sure. And for the record, anything involving Victoria Nuland and our Beloved Rulers "stinketh."
I've been to the Hagia Sophia and it is truly amazing to see. Standing in the center of that great church and looking up to the top of the dome nearly 200' up is an architectural wonder in itself.
ReplyDeleteIn the video at 2.49 there'san icon of Christ surrounded by a syntax of angels, where is that located. I don't recall seeing it.
Blessing to you LSP.
I've never been, sean, though I'd very much like to. Imagine, if you can, the Liturgy and its Imperial Entrance.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about the angels, good question.
Well, historically, the Byzantines weren't exactly the friends of the Western European Christians. Between charging them outrageously for 'safe passage' while robbing them, selling them rotten food at premium prices, reporting their movements and plans to the Muslim forces, literally stabbing them in the back if given a chance, well... Western Europe kind of got over trying to save the Eastern Christian Church's ass over and over again.
ReplyDeleteAfter the First Crusade, Constantinople wasn't playing nice at all with the Crusaders.
Where was the Byzantine Empire during the whole Crusades? Where was their vaunted military when the Crusaders needed them? Where were the supplies, the weapons, any support when the Muslims were crushing the Crusaders and they asked for help?
Where were the Byzantines when the Muslims were going around the Byzantines and going into Europe?
Hmmm???
Sucks, but you can't stand in the middle of the road and not expect to get run over by one side or another.
Seriously, the Byzantines should have been the ones providing physical support and protection to the Christian communities in the Holy Land. Where were they? Why didn't they do anything?
Instead, the Byzantines acted... in a byzantine manner, screwing over friends while helping enemies. Kind of like Washington DC, no?
Good call, Beans, and I'd say true. They seem to have evolved the worst kind of Roman imperial intrigue, skulduggery, ambition and labyrinthine iniquity taken up into an art form, an eastern one at that, which = cubed.
ReplyDeleteThat said, to my mind the West should have allied in a common Christian front and taken out Islam, regardless of Byzantine pretension. Imagine a successful 4th Crusade, perhaps. But alas, this wasn't to be, we were too busy fighting ourselves and the eastern shore lay forgotten.
Mind you, with notable exceptions, Lepanto and Vienna spring to mind. Those two victories should and I'd like to think could have been universal. But no.
That kind of thing was the drift of the post. Probably should've spelled it out, oh well.
By the time of the 4th Crusade, someone with deep piles of gold was busy sowing dissention amongst the various crusader states, the western European kingdoms, and anyone showing a spine.
ReplyDeleteWonder who that someone or someones was/were? Could they have, looking out a window, gazed upon the Hagia Sophia? Or upon the Kabba? Or both?
What should have happened, at the time of the 1st Crusade, is Byzantine should have joined hand in hand, arm in arm with the Western European Crusaders, and just stomped the living dog-poop out of the towelheads, destroyed Mecca and Medina, destroyed every mosque, mosquette, goat shed, goat tent and any and all sacred items associated with islam. Combined the two powers, the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox, had the ability to do it.
But, no. The Byzantines were byzantine and too busy screwing anyone who had a chance of success.
The First Crusade succeeded in spite of the Byzantines. Afterwards, the failures of following crusades have some or all of the fingerprints of the bloody hand of Byzantium.
Good call, Beans, and I especially liked this:
ReplyDelete"Wonder who that someone or someones was/were? Could they have, looking out a window, gazed upon the Hagia Sophia? Or upon the Kabba? Or both?"
That's a question worthy of a book/dissertation, imo. Go for it if you have the research stamina (I don't), happy to work as editor.