St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church

We began the morning with 8:30 am Mass in the chapel at St. Anthony of Padua Church. We could not celebrate Mass in the main sanctuary because the Archbishop of Milan was celebrating Mass for 100 priests. Right before he began Mass, the Archbishop asked Rebecca where our group was from. Surprising to me, she said “Texas.” She used to respond with something like, “I live in Texas, but I’m not from Texas.” Now, after therapy, she is now embracing the great state.

The church was originally constructed by Venetian friars belonging to the Franciscan order. It was demolished in 1906 and then reconstructed in 1912. The Church is currently managed by the Franciscan friars. It is the largest and most active Catholic parish in Istanbul, which is predominately Muslim.

Our priest celebrated Mass with a Franciscan priest assisted by two Franciscan brothers. There were three locals at Mass who sang with beautiful voices. We met two of them: Agatha from Nigeria and Librica from the Philippines. Both work as nannies.

The weather was cloudy, gloomy, and cold. I had to grudgingly tell Rebecca that she was right again—always a humbling adventure. Before we left for Istanbul, she insisted that I did not pack enough warm clothes. I argued that she was wrong. I am now grateful that she was kind enough to pack an additional long-sleeved fleece sweatshirt.

Chora Church

We then headed over to the Church of the Holy Savior, also known as the Chora Church, built in the 4^th century. It was called “Chora” (meaning “in the country” in Greek) because it was located outside the city walls of Constantinople. It was built as a monastery and was significant for its beautiful mosaics and frescoes depicting biblical scenes of the early life of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Family.

After the Ottoman’s captured Constantinople in in 1453, the church was converted into a mosque, now called the Kariye Mosque. The mosaics and frescoes were covered with plaster because Islam does not permit images of any kind. The plaster helped preserve the images.

In 1948, the church was converted into a museum. The mosaics and frescoes were uncovered and meticulously restored. In 2020, the Turkish government reconverted the museum back into a mosque, but still allows visitors to see the artwork.

Dalim explained that some of the scenes depicted the Protoevangelium Gospel of James which is reliable in some instances but not others. For example, one of the mosaic scenes showed Joseph, Mary, and their four sons (including Jesus) after they fled into Egypt, implying that Joseph and three other sons before Mary. Another scene depicted Joseph being angry at Mary for becoming pregnant.

When we left the church, the weather was still cold and gloomy.

Blue Mosque

I was actually looking forward to visiting the Blue Mosque because I had never been inside one. From a Christian standpoint, it is a bit disappointing. First, it as a pain to get into the mosque because we had to stop before a walking on a certain rug, take off our shoes with our feet on cold ground, and carry the shoes in a bag. Women, of course, had to put a covering over their head. It didn’t seem to matter what it was. I saw scarves, hoodies, and paper.

The Blue Mosque was commissioned by Sultan Ahmed I, who became the Sultan in 1603 when he was 13 years old. He wanted to be remembered forever so he built this grand mosque that would rival the nearby Hagia Sophia. The mosque was completed in 1617. The architecture ia unique because it combines Byzantine designs from Hagia Sophia with traditional Islamic design.

For me, the interior seemed a bit sterile. It was surrounded by 200 stained-glass windows and 20,000 ceramic tiles in various shades of blue. There were no statues or icons. It was pretty much a huge space for prayer cordoned off to separate the sexes. Pope Benedict XVI visited the Blue Mosque in 2006—only the second pope to visit a mosque.

We left the mosque through a different door, walked off the carpet onto the cold, damp ground in our socks, and put our shoes back on. My feet were freezing the rest of the day.

Hagia Sophia

Emperor Constantine built the first church on the the site of Hagia Sophia in 325. It was finished by his son Constantius in 360. It was a large wooden structure that was destroyed during a riot in 404. Emperor Theodosius II built a second church in 415, but it burned down during a revolt in 532 against Emperor Justinian I.

Emperor Justinian then decided to build Hagia Sofia, which means “Holy Wisdom” in Greek. Completed in 537, it was the world’s largest church at the time. It became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985.

Hagia Sophia was the largest cathedral in world for 1000 years until constuction of the Seville Cathedral in 1519. Some call Hagia Sophia’s structure a masterpiece of Byzantine architecture. The central dome is 180 feet above ground and has a diameter of 100 feet. Its dome was the largest in the world until the Florence Cathedral in 1436. Hagia Sophia served as the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

After the Ottomans took over Constantinople, Sultan Mehmed II converted Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Hagia Sophia remained a mosque for 500 years. In 1934 the ruler of the secular Republic of Turkey ordered the secularization of Hagia Sophia and turned it into a museum. In 2020, the Turkish government converted Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, but permitted tourists to view the restored Christian artwork.

I always had mixed feelings about going into Hagia Sophia. I really didn’t want to see the once huge beautiful basilica turned into a mosque.

We toured the upper part with the Christian mosaics and frescos looking down on the empty prayer section below.

The inside looked magnificent. I imagined how it must have looked as a basilica filled with people–with the apase, altar, and stained-glass windows. Interesting enough, since Hagia Sophia was not built to face Mecca, the people prayed facing an odd angle inside.

The Basilica Cistern

We visited the Basilica Cistern which lies beneath the streets of Istanbul. It was built by Emperor Justinian I around 532 to provide a secure water supply for his palace. The cistern holds nearly 106,000 tons of water. The Ottoman Turks quit using the cistern because they preferred running water over stored water. In the 1980s the cistern was cleaned and opened to the public as a tourist attraction.

Bosphorus Cruise

We were supposed to take our cruise through the Bosphorus strain the nght before, but it was rainy, cold, and we arrived too late. Dalim worked the cruise in at the end of this long day.

The Bosphorus is a natural strait that runs through Istanbul. It is the boundary between Europe and Asia, connecting the Black Sea in Asia to the Mediterranean Sea in Europe through the Aegean Sea. Istanbul is the only city in the world that lies on two continents: Europe and Asia.

The geographical position of the Bosphorus strait makes it one of the most strategically significant and busiest waterways in the world. The strait is vital to maintain a steady flow of goods and resources between Europe and Asia.

Since it was not tourist season, we had a charter boat to ourselves for the cruise. Due to the cold, we all sat indoors comfortably at tables. There was a bar with drinks and snacks to order. The poor man running the snack bar would repeatedly prepare trays of food and drinks trying to entice us to purchase. He would pour the drinks into several cups, place them on the trays, and then mix and match various snacks. Then he would walk around table to table, over and over again. He seemed like a happy and friendly guy, but hardly anyone was buying. I’m thinking that was struggling for business this time of year. He seemed to be working very hard for litle reward. So, in an act of compassion, a couple of us bought a beer. It was a win-win for all of us.