Ancient church becomes a mosque<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Hagia Sophia, once the grandest Christian church of the world, has been turned into a mosque.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Built in the sixth century by Emperor Justinian in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2020\/09\/ancient-church-becomes-a-mosque.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ancient church becomes a mosque\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Hagia Sophia, once the grandest Christian church of the world, has been turned into a mosque.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Built in the sixth century by Emperor Justinian in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2020\/09\/ancient-church-becomes-a-mosque.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Labyrinthine Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-04T15:42:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-04T15:51:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/613\/2020\/09\/deesis.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"447\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Father Pablo Migone\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Father Pablo Migone\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2020\/09\/ancient-church-becomes-a-mosque.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2020\/09\/ancient-church-becomes-a-mosque.html\",\"name\":\"Ancient church becomes a mosque\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-04T15:42:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-04T15:51:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/#\/schema\/person\/35ce8464416a4368561caf8ed8c2ba1b\"},\"description\":\"The Hagia Sophia, once the grandest Christian church of the world, has been turned into a mosque.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Built in the sixth century by Emperor Justinian in\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2020\/09\/ancient-church-becomes-a-mosque.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2020\/09\/ancient-church-becomes-a-mosque.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2020\/09\/ancient-church-becomes-a-mosque.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ancient church becomes a mosque\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/\",\"name\":\"Labyrinthine Mind\",\"description\":\"Seeking God in the labyrinth\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/#\/schema\/person\/35ce8464416a4368561caf8ed8c2ba1b\",\"name\":\"Father Pablo Migone\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/305296c2dd82f71369f8808eb07ace26?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/305296c2dd82f71369f8808eb07ace26?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Father Pablo Migone\"},\"description\":\"Born in Lima, Peru and raised in Augusta, Georgia, Father Pablo Migone was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 2009 after studying at the Pontifical North American College and earning a Masters in Dogmatic Theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy. 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{"id":5549,"date":"2020-09-04T10:42:13","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T15:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/?p=5549"},"modified":"2020-09-04T10:51:13","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T15:51:13","slug":"ancient-church-becomes-a-mosque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2020\/09\/ancient-church-becomes-a-mosque.html","title":{"rendered":"Ancient church becomes a mosque"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

After the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the church was converted into a mosque.\u00a0 A replica was built across a garden which still stands today, the Blue Mosque.\u00a0 In 1935, the newly created secular Turkish state that rose from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire turned the building into a museum.\u00a0 Strategically, the building would cease to be a mosque and would not return to the Orthodox.\u00a0 A bittersweet compromise was reached.\u00a0 Muslims in the city still had plenty of mosques for worship, and the Greeks had the Church of Saint George in the Fener district of Istanbul.<\/p>\n

On July 10^{th<\/sup>, 2020, President Ardogan of Turkey declared that the Hagia Sophia would return to its status as a mosque.\u00a0 I was anxious at first about the access to this historic building.\u00a0 I have visited it three times, and each time I have fallen in love with the place even more.\u00a0 I was pleased to learn that entrance would now be free to visitors (of course as long as the visit happened during non-prayer hours).\u00a0 Recently however I watched a video of the interior of the Hagia Sophia and I was heartbroken.\u00a0 The stunning, ancient Christian mosaics have been covered with cloth.\u00a0 Access to the second floor that contains one of the most famous depictions of Jesus has been blocked.\u00a0 Furthermore, I read that the Chora Church, or Church of the Holy Savior in the Fields, has also been turned into a mosque, and I suppose its significant Christian artwork will also be covered.<\/p>\n}

Christianity does not tie itself down to geography.\u00a0 Wherever two or more are gathered in the name of Jesus, we know He is present.\u00a0 The Church is made up of the living stones of believers and the King is present wherever the Eucharist is celebrated.\u00a0 It is acceptable in the Christian understanding of the faith and history that the Hagia Sophia after one thousand years as the grandest temple in the world is no longer a church (it ceased to be a church before the current Saint Peter Basilica in Rome was even built!).\u00a0 My heart breaks because the world is being deprived of rich religious and artistic heritage with the covering of the exquisite mosaics and other artwork.\u00a0 I cannot imagine a world where it is impossible to see the icon of Jesus on the second floor of the Hagia Sophia \u2013 what a loss.\u00a0 I certainly hope there are plans to make this artwork accessible.<\/p>\n

Picture is from the public domain.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"