"Glittering with the Indescribable Brightness of the Sun" ~ Saint Polyeuctus and his magnificent temple in Byzantium

The execution of St. Polyeuctus of Melitene, taken from the Menologion
of Basil II, ca. AD 1000.

February 13 is the feast day of yet another victim of the persecution of Decius, Saint Polyeuctus of Melitene in Roman Armenia. Though practically unknown today, Polyeuctus was renowned in antiquity as a soldier-martyr. An epitome of his acts was recorded by Symeon Metaphrastes in the 10th century, though it is likely that Symeon was working from a much older tradition. Indeed, Polyeuctus was revered in antiquity from at least the time of the Empress Eudocia (mid 5th century AD) who built a shrine dedicated to him in Constantinople.

Here is an English translation of Metaphrastes’s acts of Saint Polyeuctos taken from The Lives of the Saints by Sabine Baring-Gould (1878) who claims that they are based on the original by Nearchus “who took his body to burial after his death”:

Whilst the Christians, especially those in the East, were suffering persecution under the Emperors Decius and Valerian, there were two men very friendly, Polyeuctus and Nearchus by name. Now Nearchus was a Christian, but Polyeuctus was a heathen. But when Decius and Valerian could not be satiated with the blood of the saints, they issued an edict that those Christians who would sacrifice to the gods, should be favored by the majesty of the empire, but that those who refused should be cruelly punished. Which things being heard, Nearchus, who desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ, lamented because his comrade, whom he loved as a second self, would be left in peril of eternal damnation.

Going therefore to his friend, Polyeuctus, he announced to him that on the morrow their friendship must come to an end. And when he answered that death alone could terminate this, Nearchus said, "You speak the truth, we are about to be separated by death." And he showed him the imperial edict. Then Polyeuctus narrated to Nearchus how Christ had appeared to him in vision, and had taken off his dirty vestment, together with his military harness, and had thrown over him a gorgeous silk robe, linking it at his shoulder with a golden brooch, and had mounted him on a winged horse. Hearing this, Nearchus was glad, and having expounded the vision, and instructed Polyeuctus more fully in the faith, his friend believed perfectly, and began to thirst for martyrdom.

Now when Polyeuctus declared himself openly to be a Christian, and rebuked idolatry, being tried by the persecutors, he was for a long time tortured. And when he had been a long while scourged with rods, the tormentors were weary, and endeavored to persuade him with bland speeches and promises, to return to the worship of the gods. But he, remaining immovable in the confession of the Lord, and deriding them, was more furiously beaten.

Then came his wife and only son, and she filled the place with her cries, and held out to him his son, alleging his marriage ties, with many tears and sighs, and labored to call the saint from martyrdom, by the thoughts of his son, of his wealth, and of his friends. But he, divinely inspired, could not be separated from Christ by any temptations, but all the more exhorted his wife to desert her idols and believe in Christ.

Now when the governors saw that the constancy of the martyr was not to be shaken, they pronounced capital sentence against him. And when the martyr heard this, he gave thanks, and praising God, was led to the place of execution, confirming the faithful with his holy exhortations, so that not a few of the unbelievers were converted. Then, turning to the Blessed Nearchus, he announced to him that he should follow him according to mutual agreement; and bidding him farewell, died a glorious death.

As mentioned above, the Empress Eudocia built a shrine to Polyeuctus in Constantinople. This would be eclipsed a few decades later by a truly monumental church raised in Constantinople to Saint Polyeuctus by the wealthy noblewoman Anicia Juliana during the 520s AD. Indeed, at the time of its completion, the great Church of Saint Polyeuctos would be the largest and most magnificent ecclesiastical edifice in the city—and possibly the world. An epigram exists celebrating the works of Anicia, a descendant of Constantine and Theodosius, which describes the interior of this church. Here is an excerpt from the epigram rendered into English by Mary Whitby:

Miniature of Anicia Juliana flanked
by personifications of Wisdom and
Magnanimity from a copy of De
Materia Medica dedicated to her
in the early 6th century, AD.

What choir is sufficient to sing the contests of Juliana who, after Constantine, embellisher of his Rome, after the holy all-golden light of Theodosius, and after royal descent from so many forebears, accomplished a work worthy of her family, and more than worthy in a few years? She alone has overpowered time and surpassed the wisdom of the celebrated Solomon, raising a temple to receive God, the richly wrought and gracious splendor of which a great epoch cannot celebrate.

How it stands forth on deep-rooted foundations, springing up from below and pursuing the stars of heaven, and how too it extends from the west, stretching to the east, glittering with the indescribable brightness of the sun on this side and on that! On either side of the central nave, columns standing upon sturdy columns support the rays of the golden-roofed covering. On both sides recesses hollowed out in arches have given birth to the ever-revolving light of the moon. The walls, opposite each other in measureless paths, have put on marvelous meadows of marble, which nature caused to flower in the very depths of the rock, concealing their brightness and guarding Juliana’s gift for the halls of God, so that she might accomplish divine works, laboring at these things in the immaculate promptings of her heart. What singer of wisdom, moving swiftly on the breath of the west wind and trusting in a hundred eyes, will pinpoint on each side the manifold counsels of art, seeing the shining house, one ambulatory upon another?

The epigram, which was apparently inscribed in stone upon the walls of the church, also describes glorious images from the life of Constantine, perhaps rendered in mosaic upon the interior of the dome:

Thence, it is possible to see above the rim of the hall a great marvel of sacred depiction, the wise Constantine, how escaping the idols he overcame the God-fighting fury, and found the light of the Trinity by purifying his limbs in water. [Taken from Whitby: The Saint Polyeuktos Epigram: A Literary Perspective]

Foundations of the Church of St. Polyeuctus in Istanbul.
Photo credit: Jeremy Thomas.

It is said that the low-born emperor Justinian viewed Juliana as a rival and her great church as a direct challenge to him. In the 6th century work entitled The Glory of the Martyrs by Gregory of Tours, an anecdote is related in which Justinian demanded that Juliana remit a portion of her wealth to the imperial treasury. In response, Juliana did the following:

Julinana gathered some craftsmen and secretly gave them whatever gold she could find in her storerooms. She said: “Go, construct plates to fit the measure of the beams, and decorate the ceiling [of the church] of the blessed martyr Polyeuctus with this gold, so that the hand of the greedy emperor cannot touch these things.”

When Justinian came to collect the wealth of Juliana, she invited him to pray with her in the great church of Saint Polyeuctus which was next to her home. Upon entering, she said:

“Most glorious Augustus, I ask you to look at the ceiling of this church and realize that my poorness is kept there in this craftsmanship. But you now do what you wish. I will not oppose you.”

Justinian, realizing he was defeated, left the church and accepted from Juliana only a gold ring set with an emerald as a token of the wealth he had hoped to receive into the imperial fisc.

The so-called Pillars of Acre at Saint Mark's Cathedral,
Venice, now known to have come from St. Polyeuctus.

The above excerpts were taken from Gregory of Tours Glory of the Martyrs, translated with an introduction by Raymond van Dam. The entire story of the above incident is well worth reading.

It is speculated that Justinian built his gigantic new Hagia Sophia, completed in AD 537, specifically to outshine Juliana's Church of St. Polyeuctus.

The Church of St. Polyeuctus seems to have survived into the 11th century when it fell to ruin. Pieces of it were recycled and used for other buildings--some even finding their way to Venice in the aftermath of the 4th Crusade. Whatever remained was leveled by the time of the Ottoman conquest, to be rediscovered by archaeological excavations in the 1960s.

As a final note, there have been some recent interpolations of lives of Saints Polyeuctos and Nearchus which attempt to reinvent them as homosexual lovers, despite the clear mention of Polyeuctos’s wife and child in the acts. Let it suffice to say that such attempts have no basis in fact and are largely the product of modern fantasy which can not comprehend strong male friendships without a sexual overlay. Such interpolations may be safely ignored.

"O Solomon, I have Surpassed Thee!" ~ The Dedication of Justinian's Hagia Sophia

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On this day in history - December 27, AD 537 - the Roman emperor Justinian dedicated his monumental Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) in Constantinople. The huge edifice was actually the third Church of Holy Wisdom built on the site, the previous one having been burned to the ground during the calamitous Nika Rebellion of AD 532. Thus, this tremendous and enduring wonder of the world was built in less than six years.

The mosaic image above shows Justinian offering the Church of Holy Wisdom to the Theotokos and Christ Child and may be seen in the south vestibule of the church above the doorway to the narthex. A more detailed history of this mosaic may be found here.

Upon entering the church during its dedication ceremony, Justinian is reported to have exclaimed, "O Solomon, I have surpassed thee!" 

Hagia Sophia's interior as it looks today.

Justinian spared no expense in beautifying the church. The late Roman historian, Procopius, writing within two decades of the church's dedication, said:

"[The Church] is distinguished by indescribable beauty, excelling both in its size, and in the harmony of its measures, having no part excessive and none deficient; being more magnificent than ordinary buildings, and much more elegant than those which are not of so just a proportion. The church is singularly full of light and sunshine; you would declare that the place is not lighted by the sun from without, but that the rays are produced within itself, such an abundance of light is poured into this church.... 

Hagia Sophia exterior as it appears today, showing Ottoman-era minarets.

 ...No one ever became weary of this spectacle, but those who are in the church delight in what they see, and, when they leave, magnify it in their talk. Moreover it is impossible accurately to describe the gold, and silver, and gems, presented by the Emperor Justinian, but by the description of one part, I leave the rest to be inferred. That part of the church which is especially sacred, and where the priests alone are allowed to enter, which is called the Sanctuary, contains forty thousand pounds' weight of silver."

Click here to read the complete account of Procopius from his book entitled, Buildings.

The Brutalist Cathedral

On a recent visit to Los Angeles, I walked by this building with a colleague — a smart young guy with a cultural background that is Catholic, though he himself qualifies as a "none", I think.

As we strolled by, I asked him what he thought this building might be.

He gave it a good look up and down. "I have no idea," he remarked.

"Give me a general category of building, then," I said.

"Maybe condominiums?" he said.

"Nope, wrong," I replied.

When he spoted this statue, he said, "Oh, maybe a religious building of some sort."

Walking a little farther on, he said, "With the wires, I'm thinking Scientology."

"Wrong again," I said.

Then, a few steps farther along, he spotted a small sign that said: "Our Lady of the Angels Roman Catholic Cathedral." "This is a Catholic church?!?!?" he asked, incredulous.

As our conversation went on, he volunteered that the design probably qualified as brutalist architecture. He pointed out that it fits in well with the other examples of the style nearby, including the bizarre Disney Concert Hall which is two blocks away.

I could only agree with him.

Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles.

With all the exterior warmth of a sewage treatment plant, I was hoping that the cathedral's courtyard and grounds might radiate a greater sense of the sacred. Well, no such luck. The entire area around the cathedral was cordoned off and no access was afforded to the exterior spaces by the time we got there at about 6:30 PM. I assume this is to keep out the countless homeless and strung-out vagrants who may be seen in and around the immediate vicinity of the cathedral.

All are welcome?

We are constantly told that the Church needs to be more welcoming. Well, here at the Olympus Mons of modern American Catholicism, the shoulder could not have been more cold. I got a similar feeling when visiting the wreckovated Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago several years ago.

Every time I see something like this, my mind immediately hearkens back to the list read into the Congressional Record in 1963 under the title Current Communist Goals. Here are goals 22 and 23: 

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

I remain astounded that this hideous pile is the mother church of the largest archdiocese in the United States. It replaced the lovely earthquake-damaged St. Vibiana Cathedral which was abandoned initially because it would cost too much to repair and renovate. In the end, they spent $189.7 million building the new monstrosity.

Meanwhile, Saint Vibiana was sold to a developer, repaired for about $7 million. It is now used as a venue for wedding receptions, including same-sex "marriages."

"And he cried out with a strong voice, saying: Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen; and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every unclean spirit, and the hold of every unclean and hateful bird..." [Apocalypse 18:2]

January 12 ~ On this day, AD 532, the burning of Hagia Sophia II

Original steps leading up to the entrance of Theodosius's
Hagia Sophia. Taken from here.

Many people know of Justinian’s monumental basilica, Hagia Sophia, which has stood in Constantinople/Istanbul for nearly 1,500 years. Few people, however, realize that Justinian’s church is actually the third monumental basilica to be built on that site.

Originally completed in about AD 415, the second of the three great basilicas was burnt to the ground on the night of January 12, AD 532 during the Nika riots in Constantinople. For an overview of this tragic revolt that ended in the slaughter of over 30,000, see my previous post: Justinian 31, Factionists 10: The Nika Rebellion of AD 532.

Procopius of Caesarea, possibly an eye-witness, described the destruction of the church as follows:

The lowest dregs of the people in Byzantium once assailed the Emperor Justinian in the rebellion called Nika, which I have clearly described in my History of the Wars. To prove that it was not merely against the emperor but no less against God that they took up arms, they ventured to burn the church of the Christians which the people of Byzantium call Sophia, a name most worthy of God. God permitted them to effect this crime, knowing how great the beauty of this church would be when restored. Thus the church was entirely reduced to ashes. (Taken from The Church of Sancta Sophia, Constantinople).

Sadly, descriptions of the great church of Theodosius II in the surviving literature of the time are few and far between. We get a small sense of what it may have looked like in this brief notice from the Paschal Chronicle within the narrative of the Nika rebellion:

Thereafter, the rioters set fire to the bronze-roofed entrance to the Palace [the Chalke Gate], and it was burnt, together with the portico of the scholarii and the protectors and candidate, and there was a breach. And similarly both the Senate-house, by the Augustaeum as it is called, was burnt, and the whole of the Great Church together with its awesome and marvelous columns was completely demolished on all four sides. (Taken from “The account of the nika riots as evidence for sixth-century constantinopolitan topography,” by Nigel Westbrook.)

Remains of Hagia Sophia II, destroyed AD 532. Taken from here.

Filling in the gaps, we have some archaeological evidence that was unearthed in the open area in front of the existing Hagia Sophia in 1935 by A. M. Schneider. There is an excellent gallery of photos showing some of the monumental stonework associated with Theodosius II’s church on WikiMedia Commons, including the above frieze showing several lambs in a row.

Also floating around out there is this tentative reconstruction of the façade of Theodosius II’s church, showing the “awesome and marvelous columns” as described above in the Paschal Chronicle’s account.

The great church itself is supposed to have had a five-aisle nave and featured a golden altar donated by Saint Pulcheria, sister of Theodosius II. The altar is described as follows by Sozomen in his Ecclesiastical History:

In token of her virginity and the headship of her brother, she [Pulcheria] consecrated in the church of Constantinople, a holy table, a remarkable fabric and very beautiful to see; it was made of gold and precious stones; and she inscribed these things on the front of the table, so that it might be patent to all.

Unfortunately for this structure, it was roofed with wood which made it particularly susceptible to fire. Justinian's grand replacement, would not have this defect.

My visit to Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago

I like to visit local churches when I'm on business travel. Two weeks ago, I was in Chicago and decided to drop in on Holy Name Cathedral on a Saturday afternoon. Knowing what I do about recent Catholic history in Chicago, I was expecting to see yet another example of "wreckovation". Sadly, I wasn't far off.

The exterior of the Cathedral is still quite lovely. Here are two photos:

And from another angle:

Once inside, though, the ambiance was something not quite Catholic. By way of comparison, here's a photo of the inside of the Cathedral circa 1958 before the "modernizaton" took place.
And here's what the interior looks like today (apologies for the blur):

The ceilings, columns, and floor remain quite beautiful, but notice the apse in particular which has been almost completely desacralized. Also notice the disappearance of religious statues.

When I entered, the organist was playing some horrible 12-tone piece that seemed better suited for a slasher movie than for a Catholic cathedral. With that noise echoing throughout the vast space, it was impossible to pray. So instead, I went and visited the bookstore in the basement. To my surprise, the selection of books and religious items on sale was excellent and I walked out with a Byzantine/Russian style icon of Our Lady Hodegetria.

By the time I left the bookstore, the "music" had ceased so I decided to say a rosary. At that point, I went looking for the tabernacle. Of course, there was no sign of it in the apse, and for a moment, I felt a little like Mary Magdalene on Easter morning when she said, "They have taken my Lord away and I don't know where they have put him." I found what I assumed was the tabernacle in one of the two side "chapels" flanking the apse. Calling them chapels is a stretch, however, as there are no altars in either of them. As works of religious art, both are horrifying:

I assume this piece was done in honor of the Blessed Virgin, although to me it looked more like a haphazard display of heavy bronze cobwebs.

The tabernacle was worse:

In this one, we see our Lord emerging from a Sputnik-like object which has apparently exploded in a taffy factory.

It was a bit difficult to pray with these disturbing images in front of me, and the cynical part of me speculated that this was the whole point of having them there. But I persevered. At least the huge, stylized crucifix hanging over the altar wasn't completely awful. The rose windows were also quite beautiful, but I suspect these were left untouched from the original construction.
The rear of the cathedral was dominated by the organ, which had a foreboding appearance--almost like the warp core of the starship Enterprise:

On a positive note, I was able to attend Confession at the cathedral, and there was a steady stream of penitents there when I went. As I left, I noticed that there is currently a capital campaign underway for the building, and refurbishment is in process on the exterior of the building. I can only hope this means that some major dewreckovation may be in the works on the interior as well in the not-too-distant future. It would be a shame to leave such a beautiful edifice so barren of religious adornment.

Book Review: Brunelleschi's Dome

No, this isn't a book about an Italian guy with a big head, although Filippo Brunelleschi certainly had a massive ego. Brunelleschi's Dome is about the city of Florence generally during one of the greatest periods of genius and creativity in human history. It is also, specifically, about the life of Filippo Brunelleschi, a classic genius of the Italian Renaissance, and his magnificent dome which dominates the skyline of Florence to this day. Like so many of his contemporaries, Brunelleschi had a high level of expertise in a variety of fields. He was an artist, an engineer, a craftsman, an historian, and an overall solver of impossible problems. He was also a bit of a whack-job whose failures were nearly as spectacular as his successes.

With this book, Ross King has penned an engrossing popular biography of Brunelleschi, as well as a history of the construction of his famous dome. While the book goes into some detail regarding the engineering behind the construction of the dome, the prose is never heavy and is written so that the layman, such as myself, never gets bored or lost.

My wife and I visited Italy in 2000 and climbing to the top of the Duomo was one of the high points (literally!) of the trip. I wish I had read this book beforehand! I therefore highly recommend it to anyone who is planning a visit to Florence. It will give you that much more appreciation for the amount of work--and genius--that went into the construction of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.