THE MOSQUE OF ST. SOPHIA.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1304, 22 April 1915, Page 2

THE MOSQUE OF ST. SOPHIA.

The Mosque of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, about which such a curious legend exists, bids fair to once again become a Christian church. The Emperor Justinian married Theodora, and they did great things for the Roman world, for the rights of women, for law, order, and religion. During their reign the Church of the Divine Wisdom — St. Sophia — was burned down and they resolved to rebuild it, so that all the world would wonder. The whole Roman world was laid under tribute, and there arose on the old site such a church, such a basilica, such a cathedral as the world had never seen. The temple of Baalbec contributed some of its rare columns; the temple of Diana of Ephesus contributed others. No expense was spared; nothing was left undone that would add to the glory of the edifice, and when you read the pious stories of the erection of this mighty temple, you realise how real was their religion to these early. Christians. It was dedicated on Christmas Day, 538—1377 years ago—and it. is standing yet. When Justinian saw the glorious structure finished, and all the vast multitudes came to the opening, he exclaimed: “O, Solomon, I have surpased thee.” It was indeed a wonderful building. St. Peter’s, at Rome, is greater, vaster, more elaborate, it may be, but St. Sophia stands alone. The style of architecture is amazing. Four arches form the central hall, 235 feet north and south, and 250 feet east and west. It is thus nearly square, but the dome is set on the square, and it is 107 feet in diameter and 46 feet deep. At the base of the dome are 46 arched windows, so that the dome itself appears to be suspended above you, by some metaphysical means. The original dome was destroyed by an earthquake some twenty years after the opening, and some improvements were made when rebuilt, but what is a matter of twenty years in a story of thirteen hundred years? What was done with mosiacs you can see in the glorious pictures in St. Peter’s at Rome, but a thousand years before that —almost —they had made the interior of St. Sophia into a place of gleaming glory by means of the little pieces of coloured glass wrought into beautiful mosaic pictures. There are now acres of mosaics over this old temple, but they were whitewashed over when it was made into a mosque. It says in the Moslem Koran, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, etc., and Turks obey. The whitewash is wearing thin new, and rhe faces of Jesus and Moses are showing through, and when our fleet captures Constantinople, the Russians will restore the mosaics and clear off the whitewash, and make it once more into a Christian place of worship. Justinian had the floor of St. Sophia flagged with marble, all rippled like the waves of the sea. What it must have cost to make that floor, with a rippled marble, nobody knows, but the marble workers can guess. The ripples seemed to roll towards the high altar and the effect must have been wonderful. When the Moslems had purged the place from the slaughter of a hundred thousand of the richest people in the city, they made the great cathedral into a mosque, and replaced the cross on the summit with a gilded crescent. They also laid the prayer mats diagonally across the marble floor, so that the worshippers would face Mecca when they prayed. The gallery is a vast place, with no seats in it, and the balcony along the front is so high that you can scarcely see over into the body of the building. The front of the gallery is made of vast blocks of marble, and in the centre of each block was a raised cross. When the building was changed from cross to crescent, the Turks chiselled off the cross from the marble blocks, but the mark of the cross is there yte, and when the muezzin calls, “There is no God but God,” you feel that he is denying the divinity of Christ and the mark of the cross is there yet, and when the muezwitness to the ancient faith in the doctrine.

The old cathedral has been altered, repaired, added to, and “improved” through the ages, but it still stands a monument to Justinian and his sweet wife Theodora. When the Turks broke into St. Sophia in 1453, the Greek Archbishop was serving mass at the high altar. He passed upstairs into the gallery, and the Turks saw

him go. They followed him, with murder in their hearts, but a door opened in the wall and he disappeared. They smote the .wall, to find the door, but could find none, and you can see the marks of their blows to this day. They brought masons and builders and soothsayers, but no door was ever found. It was a miracle, and the legend says that when St. Sophia becomes once more a Christian Church, the Archbishop w.ll re appear. To the mystical Russian the one nation whose religion is part of its daily life, the old legends centred round Constantinople must have a compelling power. Germany possesses many celebrates of the racing world, because the Government has paid fabulous prices in England in the last few years for winners of the Derby, St. Leger, and other classic races to be used for breeding purposes in the Kaiser’s domain. Most of these valuable stallions and mares are owned or controlled by the Gov ernment, and are likely to be protected to the last, but with a powerful foe to fight on either frontier there is no telling what may yet happen te anything in the German Empire.

Denny Murphy, the Wellington welterweight, who is at present in Sydney, is suffering from a broken left hand, sustained during a spar with' Teddy O’Keefe. The injured member prevented Murphy from fulfilling an important engagement in Sydney during Easter.