Hagia Sophia, God’s Chosen Ruler, and St. Nicholas: New Perspectives on the Macedonian Dynasty

Year 2020, Volume: 2, 165 - 177, 22.12.2020

Brigitte Pıtarakıs

https://doi.org/10.53979/yillik.2020.13

Abstract

The second thematic dossier in Meclis, edited by Brigitte Pitarakis, marks Hagia Sophia’s recent reconversion
to a mosque, probably the most consequential event in 2020 concerning Istanbul’s historical
heritage. It deals with experiencing Hagia Sophia in the past, and the diverse encounters
with it. This piece by Brigitte Pitarakis discusses common or related characteristics at Hagia
Sophia, the Nea Ekklesia in Constantinople, and the shrine of St. Nicholas in Myra that
shed light on the forces behind the promotion of St. Nicholas’s cult and his impact on the
Macedonians’ political ideology.

Keywords

Hagia Sophia, St. Nicholas, Macedonian Dynasty, Nea Ekklesia, Myra

Thanks

I would like to thank Stephanos Efthymiadis, Michael Featherstone, and Catherine Jolivet-Lévy who kindly accepted to read the last version of my paper. All errors and conclusions remain mine.

Ayasofya, Tanrının Seçilmiş Hükümdarı ve Aziz Nikolaos: Makedon Hanedanı'na Yeni Yaklaşımlar

Abstract

Keywords

Ayasofya, Demre, Myra, Aziz Nikolaos, Makedon Hanedanı

References

• 1 See for instance, Bissera V. Pentcheva, Hagia Sophia: Sound, Space, and Spirit in Byzantium (University Park: Pennsylvania University Press, 2017); Natalia B. Teteriatnikov, Justinianic Mosaics of Hagia Sophia and Their Aftermath (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2017);
• Ken Dark and Jan Kostenec, Hagia Sophia in Context: An Archaeological Re-examination of the Cathedral of Byzantine Constantinople (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2019); Alicia Walker, “The Emperor at the Threshold: Making and Breaking Taxis at Hagia Sophia,” in The Emperor in the Byzantine World: Papers from the Forty-Eighth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, ed. Shaun Tougher (London: Routledge, 2019), 281–321.
• 2 Constantin Porphyrogénète. Le Livre des Cérémonies, ed., Gilbert Dagron (♰) and Bernard Flusin in coll. with Michel Stavrou, I–V, 6 vols., CFHB 52 (Paris: Amis du Centre d’histoire et civilisation de Byzance, 2020), 1:58–61, 1:330–333; 4.1:95–96, 4.1:173–174, 4.1:347–348; 5:95; Constantini Porphyrogeniti imperatoris De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae libri duo, ed. I. I. Reiske, CSHB (Bonn, 1829), esp. vol. 1, chap. 34 and 1:181–183;
• in English, Anne Moffat and Maxeme Tall, trans., Constantine Porphyrogennetos: The Book of Ceremonies, 2 vols., Byzantina Australiensia 18 (Canberra: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, 2012). For a recent discussion on the archaeological structures, see Dark and Kostenec, Hagia Sophia in Context, 35, fig. 23, 75–76 (here diabatika is translated as “corridor”).
• 3 Gilbert Dagron, Emperor and Priest: The Imperial Office in Byzantium (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 92–96, 101–103.
• 5 Eugène M. Antoniades, Ἔκφρασις τῆς Ἁγίας Σοφίας, ἤτοι μελέτη συνθετικὴ καὶ ἀναλυτικὴ ὑπὸ ἔποψιν ἀρχιτεκτονικήν, ἀρχαιολογικὴν καὶ ἱστορικὴν τοῦ πολυθρυλήτου τεμένους Κωνσταντινουπόλεως (Athens: P. D. Sakellariou, 1907–1909), 2:163–169 and 2:169–85; Cyril Mango, The Brazen House: A Study of the Vestibule of the Imperial Palace of Constantinople (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1959), 67–72, 76–77, 81.
• See also Ernest Mamboury, “Sainte-Sophie, le sanctuaire et la solea, le mitatorion, la Sacré puits, le passage de St. Nicolas,” Atti del V Congresso di Studi bizantini. II. Archeologia e storia dell’arte. Liturgia e musica. Cronaca del congresso, Roma 20-26 settembre, 1936 (Rome: Tip. Del Senato del dott. G. Bardi, 1940), 197–209.
• 6 The alternative that this mosaic may represent Basil I was not dismissed in scholarship. See Leslie Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium: Images as Exegesis in the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 149–150.
• The fact that Leo VI struck some gold coins (nomismata) bearing a true portrait instead of an undifferentiated imperial figure may perhaps strengthen the link of the lunette mosaic with Leo VI. See Philip Grierson, Byzantine Coinage (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, 1999), 9.
• 7 See Paul Magdalino, “Le culte de saint Nicolas à Constantinople,” En Orient et en Occident, le culte de saint Nicolas en Europe (Xe–XXIe siècle): Actes du colloque de Lunéville et Saint-Nicolas-de-Port, 5–7 décembre 2013, ed. Véronique Gazeau, Catherine Guyon, and Catherine Vincent (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2015), 41–56; Magdalino, “Observations on the Nea Ekklesia of Basil I,” JÖB 37 (1987): 51–64; Magdalino, “Basil I, Leo VI, and the Feast of the Prophet Elijah,” JÖB 38 (1988): 193–196.
• 8 The association of St. Nicholas to church fathers is a regular feature of Cappadocian decorative programs from the late ninth to early tenth century. Among other examples, see Balkan Deresi 4 between İbrahimpaşa and Ortahisar, Holy Apostles in Sinassos, Timios Stavros near Sinasos. See Catherine Jolivet-Lévy in coll. with Nicole Lemaigre Demesnil, La Cappadoce: Un siècle après G. de Jerphanion, 2 vols. (Paris: Geuthner, 2015), I, 175, 187, 193.
• 9 See also 600 Yıllık Ayasofya Görünümleri ve 1847–49 Fossati Restorasyonu, exhibition catalogue, ed. Volker Hoffmann (Istanbul: T.C. Kültür Bakanlığı Anıtlar ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü, 2000), 115–116; Wilhelm Salzenberg, Altchristliche Baudenkmale von Constantinopel vom V. bis XII. Jahrhundert: im Anhange des Silentiarius Paulus Beschreibung der Heiligen Sophia und des Ambon (Berlin: Verlag von Ernst & Korn, 1854), pl. XXIX.
• 10 Cyril A. Mango, Materials for the Study of the Mosaics of St. Sophia at Istanbul (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1962), 48–57, drawing III; Roland J. Mainstone, “The Reconstruction of the Tympana of St. Sophia in Istanbul,” DOP 23–24 (1969–1970): 353–368; Cyril Mango and Ernest J. W. Hawkins, “The Mosaics of St. Sophia at Istanbul: The Church Fathers on the North Tympanum,” DOP 26 (1972): 6–8, 36–41.
• 11 See discussion in Bernard Flusin, “L’empereur hagiographe: Remarques sur le rôle des premiers empereurs macédoniens sur le culte des saints,” in L’empereur hagiographe: Culte des saints et monarchie byzantine et post-byzantine, ed. Petre Guran and Bernard Flusin (Bucharest: Colegiul Noua Europă, 2001), 35–36.
• 12 See Silvia Pedone, “The Marble Omphalos of Saint Sophia in Constantinople: An Analysis of an Opus Sectile Pavement of Middle Byzantine Age,” in 11th International Colloquium on Ancient Mosaics, ed. Mustafa Şahin (Istanbul: Ege Yayınları, 2011), 749–768.
• 13 Antoniades hypothesizes that the chapel of St. Nicholas may have been built by Basil the Macedonian; see Antoniades, Ἔκφρασις τῆς Ἁγίας Σοφίας, 2:164.
• 14 Le typicon de la Grande Église: Ms. Sainte-Croix no. 40, Xe siècle, ed. Juan Mateos, vol. 1, Le cycle des douze mois (Rome: Pontificium Institum Studiorum Orientalium, 1962), 124. For wider bibliography on St. Nicholas ta Basilidou, see Maria Vaiou, “The Byzantine churches founded by the emperor Constantine (324–37),” accessed November 18, 2020, http://www.irenik.org/no-254-2019/.
• 15 See Ruth Macrides, “Killing, Asylum, and the Law in Byzantium,” Speculum 63, no. 3 (1988): 514.
• 16 The Life of the Patriarch Tarasios by Ignatios the Deacon (BHG 1698). Ed., trans., and intro. Stephanos Efthymiadis (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), 34–35, 186, chap. 34. See also John Cotsonis, “The Virgin and Justinian on the Seals of the Ekklesiekdikoi of Hagia Sophia,” DOP 56 (2002): 41–55.
• 17 Paul Magdalino, “The Year 1000 in Byzantium,” in Byzantium in the Year 1000, ed. Paul Magdalino (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 250–256.
• 18 Dagron, Emperor and Priest, 104. On the last emperor, see András Kraft, “The Last Roman Emperor ‘Topos’ in the Byzantine Apocalyptic Tradition,” Byzantion 82 (2012): 213–257.
• 19 Brubaker, Vision and Meaning, fol. 143v, fig. 19, 74, 354. See also Élias Antonopoulos, “Métanoia: La personne, le sentiment et le geste,” DChAE 41 (2002): 15–19.
• 20 Diegeseis 4.22–23, Albrecht Berger, Accounts on Medieval Constantinople: The Patria (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013), 261. About the date of the text, see Stephanos Efthymiadis, “Diegeseis on Hagia Sophia from Late Antiquity to Tenth-Century Byzantium,” Byzantinoslavica 73 (2015): 16–18.
• 22 Magdalino, “Observations on the Nea Ekklesia of Basil I”; Magdalino, “Basil I, Leo VI, and the Feast of the Prophet Elijah.”
• 23 Chronographiae quae Theophanis Continuati nomine fertur liber quo Vita Basilii imperatoris amplectitur, ed. Ihor Ševčenko, CFHB 42 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2011), 83.9–10.
• 24 The bibliography is vast. Among others, see Markus Öhler, “The Expectation of Elijah and the Presence of the Kingdom of God,” Journal of Biblical Literature 118, no. 3 (1999): 461–476; SJ Nortje, “John the Baptist and the Resurrection Traditions in the Gospels,” Neotestamentica 23, no. 2 (1989): 349–358.
• 25 Nicole Thierry, “Le Baptiste sur le solidus d’Alexandre (912–913),” Revue numismatique 34 (1992): 237–241; Byzance: L’art byzantin dans les collections publiques françaises (Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1992), no. 310.
• 26 See Catherine Jolivet-Lévy, “L’image du pouvoir dans l’art byzantin sous la dynastie macédonienne (867–1056),” Byzantion 57 (1987): 442–443; Meredith L. D. Riedel, Leo VI and the Transformation of Byzantine Christian Identity: Writings on an Unexpected Emperor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 154–174.
• 27 It would seem that Methodios drew his monastic name from Pseudo-Methodios, pseudepigraphic author of an apocalypse, falsely attributed to the fourth-century church father Methodios of Patara (or Olympos), in Lycia. In this text, one finds the earlier occurrence of the topos of the Last Roman Emperor; see Kraft, “The Last Roman Emperor,” 213–214.
• 28 See Ihor Ševčenko, “Hagiography of the Iconoclast Period,” in Ideology, Letters and Culture in the Byzantine World (London: Variorum Reprints, 1982), chap. 5. On Methodios’s hagiographic activity, see Stephanos Efthymiadis, “Hagiography from the ‘Dark Age’ to the Age of Symeon Metaphrastes (Eighth–Tenth Centuries),” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography. I: Periods and Places, ed. Stephanos Efthymiadis (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), 103–106.
• 29 Nancy Patterson Ševčenko, “Canon and Calendar: The Role of a Ninth-Century Hymnographer in Shaping the Celebration of Saints,” in Byzantium in the Ninth Century: Dead or Alive? Papers from the Thirtieth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, ed. L. Brubaker (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), 101–114; reprinted in Nancy Patterson Ševčenko, The Celebration of the Saints in Byzantine Art and Liturgy (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013).
• 30 Νικολάου ἀρχιεπισκόπου Μύρων, in Hagios Nikolaos: der Heilige Nikolaos in der griechischen Kirche, ed. Gustav Anrich (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1913), 1:141.1–15 and 2:546; English translation of the passage and discussion in D. Krausmüller, “Showing One’s True Colours: Patriarch Methodios on the Morally Improving Effect of Sacred Images,” BMGS 40, no. 2 (2016): 298–306.
• 31 See Catherine Jolivet-Lévy in collaboration with Nicole Lemaigre Demesnil and Georges Kiourtzian, “Bezirana kilisesi (Cappadoce): Un exceptionnel décor paléologue en terres de Rūm. Nouveau témoignage sur les relations entre Byzance et le sultanat,” Zograf 41 (2017): 136–137.
• 32 The northeast annex was discovered during the excavations conducted by Yıldız Ötüken in the 1990s. These are two interconnected square domed rooms (C1 and C2) communicating with the sanctuary. The soil in the eastern room (C2) had been soaked with a fragrant substance that chemical analysis revealed to be similar in composition to the myrtle native to Myra.
• In light of this testimony, and a system of thin pipes that Ötüken unearthed running beneath the room, she suggested C2, built in the sixth century, as the site of Nicholas’s grave. Semiha Yıldız Ötüken, “Aziz Nikolaos Kilisesi Kazı Çalışmaları 1989–2009,” in Aziz Nikolaos Kilisesi Kazıları, 1989–2009, ed. Sema Doğan and Ebru Fatma Fındık (Istanbul: Homer Kitabevi, 2018), 77–87.
• Another view, grounded in the typology of relic chapels in Myra, and the presence of an arcosolium grave in the apsis, locates the grave at the second southeastern chapel. See Philipp Niewöhner, “The Grave of St Nicholas,” in Byzantine Anatolia, ed. Engin Akyürek and Koray Durak (Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Publications, forthcoming 2021); Niewöhner, “Neues zum Grab des hl. Nikolaus von Myra,” JAC 46 (2003): 119–133. Many thanks to Sema Doğan and Philipp Niewöhner, who kindly helped me clarify various details about St. Nicholas of Myra.
• 33 Urs Peschlow, “Die Architektur der Nikolaoskirche in Myra,” in Eine lykische Metropole in antiker und byzantinischer Zeit, ed. Jürgen Borchard, Istanbuler Forschungen 30 (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1975), 347.
• 34 For a recent reappraisal and earlier bibliography, see Sema Doğan, “Mimari Plastik Buluntular: Litürjik Kuruluşlar ve Litürjik Mekânlar ile İlişkisi,” in Doğan and Fındık, Aziz Nikolaos Kilisesi Kazıları, 306, 318. See also Çiğdem Alas, “Opus Sectile Zemin Panoları ve Duvar Kaplamaları,” in Doğan and Fındık, Aziz Nikolaos Kilisesi Kazıları, 266–267.
• 38 See Athanasios Markopoulos, “Constantine the Great in Macedonian Historiography: Models and Approaches,” in New Constantines: The Rhythm of Imperial Renewal in Byzantium, 4th–13th Centuries, ed. Paul Magdalino (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1994), 159–170; Brubaker, Vision and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium, 150–155.
• 39 Hagios Nikolaos, ed. Anrich, 1:148, chap. 18. For the iconographic cycle, see Nancy P. Ševčenko, The Life of Saint Nicholas in Byzantine Art (Turin: Bottega d’Erasmo, 1972), 104–129; Christopher Walter, The Iconography of Constantine the Great: Emperor and Saint; With Associated Studies (Leiden: Alexandros Press, 2006), 62.
• 40 Alexander Kazhdan, “An Unnoticed Mention of a Chrysobul Ascribed to Constantine the Great,” Αφιέρωμα στον Νίκο Σβορώνο, ed. Vasilis Kremmydas, Chrysa Maltezou, and Nikolaos M. Panagiotakis, 2 vols. (Rethymno: Crete University Press, 1986), 1:135–138.
• 41 See Paul Magdalino, “Knowledge in Authority and Authorised History: The Imperial Intellectual Programme of Leo VI and Constantine VII,” in Authority in Byzantium, ed. Pamela Armstrong (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), 206. See also Warren Treadgold, “The Prophecies of the Patriarch Methodius,” REB 62 (2004): 235–237; Brubaker, Vision and Meaning, 172.
• 42 See Zachary Chitwood, “The ‘Cleansing of the Ancient Laws’ under Basil I and Leo VI,” in Byzantine Legal Culture and the Roman Legal Tradition, 867–1056 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), chap. 1, 16–44. https://doi. org/10.1017/9781316861547.002.
• 43 See the discussion in John A. Cotsonis, “The Imagery of Patriarch Methodios I’s Lead Seals and the New World Order of Ninth-Century Byzantium,” in The Religious Figural Imagery of Byzantine Lead Seals: Studies on the Image of Christ, the Virgin, and Narrative Scenes (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020), chap. 2, 68–69.
• 44 See Paul Magdalino, “The Merchant of Constantinople,” in Trade in Byzantium: Papers from the Third International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium, ed. Paul Magdalino, Nevra Necipoğlu, and Ivana Jevtić (Istanbul: Koç University, 2016), 181–191.
• 45 Hélène Ahrweiler, Byzance et la mer: La marine de guerre, la politique et les institutions maritimes de Byzance aux VIIIe–XVe siècles (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1966), 73–76, 96–99.
• 46 See Shaun Tougher, The Reign of Leo VI (886–912): Politics and People (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 190.
• 47 See Jolivet-Lévy, “L’image du pouvoir,” 454; Ševčenko, The Life of St. Nicholas in Byzantine Art, 86–90, 151.
• 48 Riedel, Leo VI and the Transformation of Byzantine Christian Identity, 151–152.
• 49 See Charalambos Bakirtzis, “Pilgrimage to Thessalonike: The Tomb of St. Demetrios,” DOP 56 (2002): 180–183. See also Franz Alto Bauer, Eine Stadt und ihre Patron: Thessaloniki und der Heilige Demetrios (Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2013), 144, 343–45; John A. Cotsonis, The Religious Figural Imagery of Byzantine Lead Seals II: Studies on Images of the Saints and on Personal Piety (Abingdon: Taylor & Francis 2020), chap. 3, esp. 128–129.
• 50 Paul Magdalino, “Saint Demetrios and Leo VI,” Byzantinoslavica 51 (1990): 198–201. Leo VI also delivered three sermons on St. Demetrios, one of them at the inauguration of his church. Theodora Antonopoulou, The Homilies of the Emperor Leo VI (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 132–136.
• 52 In the thirteenth century, with the advent of the material anointing of the emperor within the context of the ecclesiastical controversy between the kingdom of Nicea and the principality of Epiros, Archbishop Demetrios Chomatianos used the myron of St. Demetrios to anoint the Epirote ruler;
• see Apostolos D. Karpozilos, The Ecclesiastical Controversy between the Kingdom of Nicea and the Principality of Epiros, 1217–1233 (Thessaloniki: Thessaloniki University Press, 1973), 84.