Byzantine Churches in Constantinople: Their History and ArchitectureVan Millingen, Alexander
Philosophy
Byzantine Churches in Constantinople: Their History and Architecture
Van Millingen, Alexander
Architecture, Byzantine; Church architecture -- Turkey -- Istanbul; Church buildings -- Turkey -- Istanbul
There can be no doubt that the mosque Gul Jamissi (mosque of the Rose),
that stands within the Gate Aya Kapou, near the Golden Horn, was the
Byzantine church of S. Theodosia. For Aya Kapou is the entrance styled
in Byzantine days the Gate of S. Theodosia ([Greek: pylê tês hagias
Theodosias]), because in the immediate vicinity of the church of that
dedication.[257] This was also the view current on the subject when
Gyllius[258] and Gerlach[259] visited the city in the sixteenth century.
The Turkish epithet of the gate 'Aya,' Holy, is thus explained. Du
Cange,[260] contrary to all evidence, places the church of S. Theodosia
on the northern side of the harbour, or at its head, _ultra sinum_.
The saint is celebrated in ecclesiastical history for her opposition to
the iconoclastic policy of Leo the Isaurian. For when that emperor
commanded the eikon of Christ over the Bronze Gate of the Great Palace
to be removed, Theodosia, at the head of a band of women, rushed to the
spot and overthrew the ladder up which the officer, charged with the
execution of the imperial order, was climbing to reach the image. In the
fall the officer was killed. Whereupon a rough soldier seized Theodosia,
and dragging her to the forum of the Bous (Ak Serai), struck her dead by
driving a ram's horn through her neck. Naturally, when the cause for
which she sacrificed her life triumphed, she was honoured as a martyr,
and men said, 'The ram's horn, in killing thee, O Theodosia, appeared to
thee a new Horn of Amalthea.'[261]
[Illustration: PLATE XLIII.
(1) S. THEODOSIA. THE EAST END.
(_E. M. Antoniadi._)
(2) S. THEODOSIA, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.
_To face page 164._]
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