The questions when and by whom the church was founded cannot be so readily determined. According to a manuscript in the library of the Greek theological college on the island of Halki (one of the small group of islands known as the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmora), an inscription in the bema of the church ascribed the foundation of the building to John Comnenus and his wife Anna.[215] The manuscript perished in the earthquake which reduced the college to a heap of ruins in 1894, but the inscription had fortunately been copied in the catalogue of the library before that disaster occurred. It read as follows: [Greek: Iôannou phrontisma Komnênou tode Annês te rhizês Doukikês tês syzygou. hois antidousa plousian, hagnê, charin taxais en oikô tou theou monotropous].[216] [Illustration: PLATE XXXVI. (1) S. MARY PAMMAKARISTOS, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST. (2) S. MARY PAMMAKARISTOS, FROM THE WEST. _To face page 138._] The legend cannot refer to the Emperor John Comnenus (1118-1143), for his consort was neither named Anna nor related to the family of Ducas. She was a Hungarian princess, who, on becoming the emperor's bride, assumed the name Irene. Mr. Siderides, therefore, suggests that the persons mentioned in the inscription were that emperor's grandparents, the curopalates and grand domestic John Comnenus and his wife, the celebrated Anna Dalassena, who bore likewise the title of Ducaena. In that case, as the curopalates and grand domestic died in 1067, the foundation of the church cannot be much later than the middle of the eleventh century. But whether the term [Greek: phrontisma] should be understood to mean that the church was founded by the illustrious persons above mentioned, or was an object already in existence upon which they bestowed their thought and care, is not quite certain. Mr. Siderides is prepared to adopt the latter meaning, and the architecture of the church allows us to assign the foundation of the building to an earlier date than the age of the grandparents of the Emperor John Comnenus. But while the connection of the church with those personages must not be overlooked, the building underwent such extensive repairs in the thirteenth century that the honour of being its founder was transferred to its restorer at that period. Pachymeres[217] speaks of the monastery as the monastery of Michael Glabas Tarchaniotes ([Greek: tên idian monên]). While the poet Philes (1275-1346), referring to a figure portrayed on the walls of the church, asks the spectator, Seest thou, O stranger, this great man? He is none other than the protostrator, the builder of this monastery, the wonder of the world, the noble Glabas. [Greek: horas ton andra ton polyn touton, xene; ekeinos houtos estin ho prôtostratôr, ho dêmiourgos tês monês tês enthade, to thauma tês gês, ho Glabas ho gennadas].[218]