According
to legend, after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, three
Venetian ships fled the city filled with various relics to avoid their capture
by the Turks, but the third which carried the Holy Altar of Hagia Sophia, sank
into the waters of the Bosphorus in the Marmara region. Since then, in the
exact area of the sinking, the sea is always calm and serene, no matter what
weather conditions are prevailing in the area. This phenomenon is testified by
modern Turkish scientists, who have attempted at various times to discover the
cause of this strange phenomenon, but due to the muddy composition of the
seabed, their efforts have been fruitless.
In the
book by Dorotheos of Monemvasia titled A Chronicle from the Creation of the
World Up to 1629 (1781), we read: "The Venetians took the most wondrous
and famous Holy Altar of Hagia Sophia, the much valued and most beautiful, out
of the Temple and onto a ship, and as they set sail and headed for Venice, O the
miracle! Near the island of Marmara the ship opened and out fell the Holy Altar
into the sea, sinking where it remains today, and this is obvious and testified
by many, for that entire area, when there is a storm, and the waves of the sea
become fearsome, there is calmness in the place where the Holy Altar is and the
sea remains undisturbed. And they go there with boats, to take water from that
part of the sea where the Holy Altar is, and it smells of a wonderful
fragrance, from holy myrrh and other fragrances."
The
father of Greek folklore, Nicholas Politis (1852-1921), writes about the
incident: "The day the City was taken, the Holy Altar was placed on a
ship, to take it to France in order to not fall into the hands of the Turks.
But there in the Sea of Marmara, the ship opened and the Holy Altar sank to the
bottom. In that spot the sea is like oil, no matter how much of a sea storm is
taking place around it. And this spot is always known by the calmness which is
always there and the fragrance coming from it. Many have even been made worthy
to see it in the depths of the sea."
It
could be just another myth that has managed to survive for centuries in the
hearts of the Greeks. But according to the local Turks of Istanbul today, this
spot in the sea remains a real unexplained phenomenon.
Mystagogy
7/17/2015
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