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| Fragment of Constantine's Tomb - Istanbul |
This is something that is I think is still a political hot potato after eight hundred years regarding what really happened to Constantine the Great’s final resting place.
He died in 337 C.E. in Constantinople. Was laid to rest in the only finished church in his new designer city which was the Church of the Twelve Apostles.
From what I have read here and there, the church was built with the intention of having all the bodies of the twelve apostles buried there in a circle around the central sarcophagus of Constantine, the founding force of this new Roman/Christian religion, in a standing structure, a mausoleum adjacent to the church building proper.
There are historical references to Justinian rebuilding the church. It was no doubt affected by earthquakes over time. The royals too apparently had their tombs there as well. It was kind of like an Orthodox version of Westminster Abbey.
Then the Roman catholic crusaders, the fourth crusade, got diverted on their way to Jerusalem, and under orders of the bankers in Venice, attacked and captured the city in 1204. There are reports that Justinian’s tomb got looted for its gold contents along with the pillage of the rest of the city.
I have to believe that Constantine’s tomb got looted at the same time. I also have to think that in terms of suppressed church truth, it may have some bone fragments of Constantine in some secret vault in the grottoes below the Vatican. But for diplomatic and propaganda reasons, they cannot admit to benefiting directly from the immoral seizure and rape of the Christian city of Constantinople.
The Muslims of course come along to this devastated city two centuries later in 1453 and conquered the decaying burned out city that had never fully recovered from the crusader plunder of it.
St. Mark’s Church in Venice is resplendent to this day with the gold, jewels, icons of that crusader sack of Constantinople.
The Church of the Twelve Apostles survived a decade or two more after the Turkish conquest, and was in such a state of disrepair, the Turks tore it down to make way for their own Faith Mosque.
There are fragments of empty unidentified sarcophaguses still sitting around the yard adjacent to this mosque and no doubt have been there from both the crusader sack of the city and the Turkish conquest.
All that is left of Constantine’s tomb, the founder of Christianity as it is structured today, is the above fragment of royal purple colored stone, labeled as such in the local archeological museum in Istanbul.
5 comments:
A good starting point; I believe with 21st century forensic pathology scientists might very well discover whose remains are still there; what happened to the remains of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora?
Not to mention the patriarchs and other VIPs from 6 centuries. I would think the people of the world are entitled to some answers.
Jim Cleland
Loyola Academy
Wilmette, IL
Well, actually I think Constantine's daughter was buried in the Vatican area.I also believed that Constantine wife was buried there too, So, taking Constantine remains to Rome wasn't so bad since COnstantine built things there up a large court basilica and also a huge statue that has his hand. Constantine can belong to both places. As for Justinian and Theodora not certain. The west knew more about Justinian and the secret history end up in the Vatican. Justinian remains might be in Serbia maybe the crusaders sold it to a Serbian since his birthplace might have been there.
I mean Constantius the son's wife.
Well, it was called the Church of the Holy Apostles for one thing. It got looted and vandalized in the Fourth Crusade. The likelihood that there was anything left of the actual bodies of Constantine, from the 300s, or Justinian, from the mid-500s, other than a few bone fragments and teeth By the time the Crusaders got finished looking for anything they could sell, whatever was left of the bodies was likely scattered all over the place.
In the wake of the looting and the burning, the church was badly damaged. The Latin Empire didn't do anything to rebuild it - it didn't have the money - the lion's share (so to speak) went to Venice - or care very much. When the Romans took the city back in the 1260s, they had very little resources to spend on maintaining churches and wasted their time fighting internally while the Turks ate up what was left of the Empire. By the time of the Conquest in 1453, the emperor was little more than the mayor of Constantinople.
Mehmet turned Hagia Sophia into a mosque, but let the Christians keep what was left of Holy Apostles. Then he decided it was a wreck anyway and occupied a great location where he could build a mosque, so he kicked them out and built his mosque, which has been rebuilt since.
first of all, i like you blog! I like also to know where Constatine the Great or Justinian where buried! Of course in the City what is now Istanbul (Constantinople) but its very crazy that the bodies of so such important Persons where never found!
It could also been destroyed in the Conquest of 1453 !
But i believe that the time of the fourth Crusade of Constantinople, the bodies and all the Gold stuff, and as you can see today in Milan, or everywhere there are Objects that belong to Constantinople like the Sacrophag of his Mother are there!
@Anonymous ! Constatine the Great or Justinian where never ever Serbs or something like Slavs! These guys are of Illyrian origin!
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