Monday, April 22, 2013 - Litany Lane Blog:
Disciple, Psalms 42:2-3; 43:3-4, Acts 11:1-18 , John 10:1-10 , Pope Francis Daily Homily - No room for ‘climbers' or ‘commercial religion' in Kingdom of God, Saint Theodore of Sykeon, Constantinople, Byzantine Empire Part I, Catholic Catechism Part Two: THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH - Article 3:6 Paschal Bouquet
Year of Faith - October 11, 2012 - November 24, 2013
P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Serenity Happens). It has a remarkable way of producing solace, peace, patience and tranquility and of course resolution...God's always available 24/7.
The world begins and ends everyday for someone. We are all human. We all experience birth, life and death. We all have
flaws but we also all have the gift of knowledge and free will,
make the most of these gifts. Life on earth is a stepping stone to our eternal home in
Heaven. The Seven Gifts of
the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, wonder and awe (fear of the
Lord) , counsel, knowledge, fortitude, and piety (reverence) and shun
the seven Deadly sins: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and
gluttony...Its your choice whether to embrace the Gifts of the Holy Spirit rising towards eternal light or succumb to the Seven deadly sins and lost to
eternal darkness. Material items, though needed for sustenance and
survival on earth are of earthly value only. The only thing that passes
from this earth to the Darkness, Purgatory or Heaven is our Soul...it's God's perpetual
gift to us...Embrace it, treasure it, nurture it, protect it...~ Zarya Parx 2013
"Raise not a hand to another unless it is to offer in peace and goodwill." ~ Zarya Parx 2012
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Prayers for Today: Monday in Easter
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Papam Franciscus
(Pope Francis)
Pope Francis April 22 Homily :
No room for ‘climbers' or ‘commercial religion' in Kingdom of God
(2013-04-22 Vatican Radio)
(Vatican Radio) The Gospel of the Good Shepherd in which Jesus describes
Himself as "the gate for the sheep" was the focus of Pope Francis’
homily Monday morning. The Mass took place in the chapel of the Casa
Santa Marta with staff and journalists from the Vatican Press Office and
Vatican Radio transmission center in Santa Maria di Galeria.
In Monday’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that whoever does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, is not a shepherd, but a thief and a robber. In short, said Pope Francis, someone who seeks to profit for themselves, who only wants to climb the social ladder. The only gate to the Kingdom of God, to the Church - the Pope said - is Jesus Himself:
"These social climbers exist even in the Christian communities, no? those people who are looking for their own... and consciously or unconsciously pretend to enter but are thieves and robbers. Why? Why steal the glory from Jesus? They want glory for themselves and this is what [Jesus] said to the Pharisees: You seek for each other's approval...'. That’s something of a ‘commercial’ religion, don’t you think? I give glory to you and you give glory to me. But these people did not enter through the true gate. The [true] gate is Jesus and those who do not enter by this gate are mistaken. How do I know that Jesus is the true gate? How do I know that this gate is Jesus’s gate? It’s enough to take the Beatitudes and do what the Beatitudes say. Be humble, poor, gentle, just ... ".
Pope Francis continued, noting that Jesus is not only the gate, he is also the way, the path to follow on our journey. He said there are many paths that we can follow, some perhaps more advantageous than others in getting ahead, but they are “misleading, they are not real: they are false. The only path is Jesus ": "Some of you may say: 'Father, you're a fundamentalist!'. No, simply put, this is what Jesus said : 'I am the gate', 'I am the path’ [He] gives life to us. Simple. It is a beautiful gate, a gate of love, it is a gate that does not deceive, it is not false. It always tells the truth. But with tenderness and love. However, we still have […] the source of original sin within us, is not it so? We still desire to possess the key to interpreting everything, the key and the power to find our own path, whatever it is, to find our own gate, whatever it is. "
"Sometimes - the Pope said - we are tempted to be too much our own bosses and not humble children and servants of the Lord": "And this is the temptation to look for other gates or other windows to enter the Kingdom of God. We can only enter by the gate whose name is Jesus. We can only enter by that gate which leads to a path and that path is called Jesus and brings to a life whose name is Jesus. All those who do something else - says the Lord – who try to enter through the window, are 'thieves and robbers'. He is simple, the Lord. His words are not complex: He is simple”.
The Pope concluded by inviting all those present to ask for "the grace to always knock on that gate": "Sometimes it's closed: we are sad, we feel desolation, we have problems with knocking, with knocking at that gate. Do not go looking for other gates that seem easier, more comfortable, more at hand. Always the same one: Jesus. Jesus never disappoints, Jesus does not deceive, Jesus is not a thief, not a robber. He gave his life for me: each of us must say this: 'And you who gave your life for me, please, open, that I may enter.' "
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Pope's Message for Earth Day:
environmentalists look to Pope Francis with hope
On 22 April 2013, more than one billion people around the world took part in the 43rd anniversary of Earth Day. Earth Day is an annual observance on which events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection.
Pope Francis voiced his concern for environmental in the very first homily of his Papacy on March 19th when he was installed.
“Please, I would like to ask all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men and women of goodwill, let us be protectors of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment”.
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Liturgical Celebrations to be presided over by Pope: April–May
Vatican City, 3 April 2013 (VIS)
Following is the calendar of celebrations scheduled to be presided over by the Holy Father in the months of April and May, 2013:
APRIL
7 April, Second Sunday of Easter, or Divine Mercy Sunday: 5:30pm,Mass in the Basilica of St. John Lateran for the Bishop of Rome to take possession of the Roman cathedra.
14 April, Sunday: 5:30pm, Mass in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls
21 April, Sunday: 9:30am, Mass and priestly ordinations in St. Peter's Basilica.
28 April, Sunday: 10:00am, Mass and confirmations in St. Peter's Square.
MAY
4 May, Saturday: 6:00pm, Recitation of the Rosary in the Basilica of St. Mary Major.
5 May, Sunday: 10:00am, Mass for Confraternities in St. Peter's Square.
12 May, Sunday: 9:30am, Mass and canonizations of Blesseds Antonio Primaldo and Companions; Laura di Santa Caterina da Siena Montoya y Upegui; and Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala.
18 May, Saturday: 6:00pm, Pentecost Vigil in St. Peter's Square with the participation of ecclesial movements.
19 May, Pentecost Sunday: 10:00am, Mass in St. Peter's Square with the participation of ecclesial movements.
Following is the calendar of celebrations scheduled to be presided over by the Holy Father in the months of April and May, 2013:
APRIL
7 April, Second Sunday of Easter, or Divine Mercy Sunday: 5:30pm,Mass in the Basilica of St. John Lateran for the Bishop of Rome to take possession of the Roman cathedra.
14 April, Sunday: 5:30pm, Mass in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls
21 April, Sunday: 9:30am, Mass and priestly ordinations in St. Peter's Basilica.
28 April, Sunday: 10:00am, Mass and confirmations in St. Peter's Square.
MAY
4 May, Saturday: 6:00pm, Recitation of the Rosary in the Basilica of St. Mary Major.
5 May, Sunday: 10:00am, Mass for Confraternities in St. Peter's Square.
12 May, Sunday: 9:30am, Mass and canonizations of Blesseds Antonio Primaldo and Companions; Laura di Santa Caterina da Siena Montoya y Upegui; and Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala.
18 May, Saturday: 6:00pm, Pentecost Vigil in St. Peter's Square with the participation of ecclesial movements.
19 May, Pentecost Sunday: 10:00am, Mass in St. Peter's Square with the participation of ecclesial movements.
Reference:
- Vatican News. From the Pope. © Copyright 2013 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Accessed 04/22/2013.
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April 2, 2013 Our Lady of Medjugorje Message to the World:"Dear children, I am calling you to be one with my Son in spirit. I am calling you, through prayer, and the Holy Mass when my Son unites Himself with you in a special way, to try to be like Him; that, like Him, you may always be ready to carry out God's will and not seek the fulfillment of your own. Because, my children, it is according to God's will that you are and that you exist, and without God's will you are nothing. As a mother I am asking you to speak about the glory of God with your life because, in that way, you will also glorify yourself in accordance to His will. Show humility and love for your neighbour to everyone. Through such humility and love, my Son saved you and opened the way for you to the Heavenly Father. I implore you to keep opening the way to the Heavenly Father for all those who have not come to know Him and have not opened their hearts to His love. By your life, open the way to all those who still wander in search of the truth. My children, be my apostles who have not lived in vain. Do not forget that you will come before the Heavenly Father and tell Him about yourself. Be ready! Again I am warning you, pray for those whom my Son called, whose hands He blessed and whom He gave as a gift to you. Pray, pray, pray for your shepherds. Thank you."
March 25, 2013 Our Lady of Medjugorje Message to the World:
“Dear children! In this time of grace I call you to take the cross of my beloved Son Jesus in your hands and to meditate on His passion and death. May your suffering be united in His suffering and love will win, because He who is love gave Himself out of love to save each of you. Pray, pray, pray until love and peace begin to reign in your hearts. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
March 18, 2013 Message to the World via Annual Apparition to Mirjana:
"Dear children! I call you to, with complete trust and joy, bless the name of the Lord and, day by day, to give Him thanks from the heart for His great love. My Son, through that love which He showed by the Cross, gave you the possibility to be forgiven for everything; so that you do not have to be ashamed or to hide, and out of fear not to open the door of your heart to my Son. To the contrary, my children, reconcile with the Heavenly Father so that you may be able to come to love yourselves as my Son loves you. When you come to love yourselves, you will also love others; in them you will see my Son and recognize the greatness of His love. Live in faith! Through me, my Son is preparing you for the works which He desires to do through you – works through which He desires to be glorified. Give Him thanks. Especially thank Him for the shepherds - for your intercessors in the reconciliation with the Heavenly Father. I am thanking you, my children. Thank you."
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Today's Word: Disciple Dis·ci·ple [dih-sahy-puh
l]
Origin: before 900; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French < Latin discipulus, equivalent to dis- dis-1 + -cip ( ere ), combining form of capere to take + -ulus -ule; replacing Middle English deciple < Anglo-French de ( s ) ciple; replacing Old English discipul < Latin, as above
noun
1. Religion .
a. one of the 12 personal followers of Christ.
b. one of the 70 followers sent forth by Christ. Luke 10:1.
c. any other professed follower of Christ in His lifetime.
2. any follower of Christ.
3. ( initial capital letter ) a member of the Disciples of Christ.
4. a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another; follower: a disciple of Freud.
verb (used with object)
5. Archaic. to convert into a disciple.
6. Obsolete . to teach; train.
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Today's Old Testament Reading - Psalms 42:2-3; 43:3, 4
2 I thirst for God, the living God; when shall I go to see the face of God?
3 I have no food but tears day and night, as all day long I am taunted, 'Where is your God?'
3 Send out your light and your truth; they shall be my guide, to lead me to your holy mountain to the place where you dwell.
4 Then I shall go to the altar of God, to the God of my joy. I will rejoice and praise you on the harp, O God, my God.
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Today's Epistle - Acts 11:1-18
1 The apostles and the brothers in Judaea heard that gentiles too had accepted the word of God,
2 and when Peter came up to Jerusalem the circumcised believers protested to him
3 and said, 'So you have been visiting the uncircumcised and eating with them!'
4 Peter in reply gave them the details point by point,
5 'One day, when I was in the town of
Jaffa,' he began, 'I fell into a trance as I was praying and had a
vision of something like a big sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners. This sheet came right down beside me.
6 I looked carefully into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of heaven.
7 Then I heard a voice that said to me, "Now, Peter, kill and eat!"
8 But I answered, "Certainly not, Lord; nothing profane or unclean has ever crossed my lips."
9 And a second time the voice spoke from heaven, "What God has made clean, you have no right to call profane."
10 This was repeated three times, before the whole of it was drawn up to heaven again.
11 'Just at that moment, three men stopped outside the house where we were staying; they had been sent from Caesarea to fetch me,
12 and the Spirit
told me to have no hesitation about going back with them. The six
brothers here came with me as well, and we entered the man's house.
13 He told us he had seen an angel standing in his house who said, "Send to Jaffa and fetch Simon known as Peter;
14 he has a message for you that will save you and your entire household."
15 'I had scarcely begun to speak when the Holy Spirit came down on them in the same way as it came on us at the beginning,
16 and I remembered that the Lord had said, "John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit."
17 I realised then that God was giving them the identical gift he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; and who was I to stand in God's way?'
18 This account satisfied them, and they gave glory to God, saying, 'God has clearly granted to the gentiles too the repentance that leads to life.'
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Today's Gospel Reading - John 10:1-10
Jesus said: “In all truth I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a bandit. He who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock; the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out. When he has brought out all those that are his, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. They will never follow a stranger, but will run away from him because they do not recognise the voice of strangers.' Jesus told them this parable but they failed to understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus spoke to them again: In all truth I tell you, I am the gate of the sheepfold. All who have come before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep took no notice of them. I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe: such a one will go in and out and will find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.”
Reflection In
Jesus we have the model of the true shepherd. In him is fulfilled the
expectation of the Good Shepherd promised by God: the “Great Shepherd”
greater than Moses (Hb 13, 20).
• John 10, 1-6: The gate of the sheepfold. In Jn 10, 1-10 it is said that Jesus is the “gate” to get to the sheep and to be led to the pastures (10, 7.9-10).
The theme of the sheep had already been introduced in John 2, 15 and in a particular way in 5, 2 where it is indicated that there is a Sheep Pool with five porticos along which were laid the sick to be healed. In this last context the sheep indicate the people who were oppressed by their directors. In Jn 10, 1, Jesus links the theme of the sheep to the atrium or inner courtyard of the Temple, the Jewish institution administered by men of power who trampled on the rights, justice and exploited the people. Such individuals were called by Jesus “thieves and bandits”.
Jesus begins his long presentation before the Pharisees, who were closed up in their unbelief and insufficiency (9, 40-41) with a general affirmation: a more sure way to enter into contact with the sheep is that of entering by the gate of the enclosure in which they are kept. Anyone who enters in a different way is not animated by a reason of love for the sheep, but in order to exploit them for his own interest. This is the sin of those who direct the people: to take hold of everything that belongs to all for themselves. Jesus calls this attitude using the term “thief”. This was precisely the accusation that Jesus addressed to the chief priests of the people during his first visit to the Temple (2, 13ss).
Another term that Jesus uses to indicate those who take away from the people what belongs to them is: “bandit”. Such a term indicates those who use violence. Therefore, the chief priests of the Temple oblige the people to submit themselves to the violence of their system (7, 13; 9, 22). The effect of this is that it produces a state of death (5, 3.21.25).
The shepherd enters through the gate to take care of the sheep, not to oppress them or maltreat them. In fact, the sheep recognize his authority (voice) and follow him. The voice of Jesus contains a message of liberation for them that is typical of the Messiah. Besides, his voice is not addressed to an anonymous group of persons but he calls each one personally. For Jesus no anonymous crowd of people exists, but each person has a face, a name, dignity. The Temple (the enclosure of the sheep) has become a place of darkness, characterized only by economic interests; money has replaced the exclusive attention to God: the Temple has become the business or trading house (Jn 2, 16).
Jesus leads the people to take them out of the darkness. And he does not do this in a fictitious way, but in a real way, because such is the work which the Father has entrusted to him. The fundamental strokes of this mission are: to enter and to call. Those who respond to that call, to the call to liberty become a new community: “Those who are His own”.
• John 10, 7-10: Jesus is the new door. Jesus again uses the symbolism of the gate in vv. 7-8: applying this to himself. He is the new door not only in regard to the old enclosure of Israel represented by the chief priests of the people but also in regard to those who follow him. He reminds the first ones of his legitimacy to be the only place of access for the sheep, because he is the Messiah ready to give his life for the sheep. And it is not by domination or prevarication, that one can approach the sheep to have a relationship with them, but rather by assuming the attitude of the one who gives his life for them. His words are a categorical invitation to change mentality, way of thinking and way of relating.
The entrance through Jesus signifies to consider the good of man as a priority and to commit all our energy to attain this. Anyone who does not enter into this new logic is an oppressor. The reader finds that the words of Jesus addressed to his contemporaries and in a particular way to the chief priests of the people, who have used domination and violence to exploit the people, are truly hard and strong, firm.
He is the new gate in regard to every person. But for men and women of today what does it mean to enter through the door which is Jesus? It implies to “get close to Him”, “to trust Him” (Jn 6, 35), to follow Him and to allow ourselves to be guided by His message (8, 31. 51), in definitive it means to participate in the dedication of Jesus so that the true happiness of man may be accomplished.
Personal questions
•
Jesus is the Good Shepherd because he always knows you, but do you
recognize him? He is a Shepherd who comes to your life as a door to go
out and to enter: do you allow Him to lead you when you relate with
others?
• In your community, in your family are you also a door, not to close it, but to remain open to fraternal communication, to allow esteem and hope to go through?
• In your community, in your family are you also a door, not to close it, but to remain open to fraternal communication, to allow esteem and hope to go through?
Reference: Courtesy of Order of Carmelites, www.ocarm.org.
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Featured Item of the Day from Litany Lane
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Saint of the Day: Saint Theodore of Sykeon
Feast Day: April 22
Patron Saint: n/a
Attributes: n/a
During the reign of Emperor Maurice (r. 582–602), he foretold of the emperor's death and of "great tribulations, terrible scourges [that] threaten the world." He was soon proven correct with the outbreak of the 26-year-long Persian war sparked by the death of Maurice. He was a close friend of the family of Emperor Phocas. Despite that, he spoke of
The trembling of the cross forecasts a crowd of misfortunes and perils for us. Yes, it forecasts fluctuations in our faith, and apostasies, invasions of many barbarian peoples, floods of blood scattered, ruin and captivity for everyone,the desolation of the holy churches, the halting of the divine service, the fall and upsetting of the Empire, embarrassments without number and serious times for the state. In short, it announces that the coming of the Enemy [devil] is soon.Furthermore, he would only pray for Phocas if the latter stopped massacring people. Still, after the successful rebellion of Emperor Heraclius, he intervened to save the life of Domentziolus, the nephew of Phocas. In return, St. Theodore of Sykeon was asked to "pray for [Heraclius] and his reign."
— St. Theodore of Sykeon
St. Theodore of Sykeon had good relations with Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople. Still, historian Walter Kaegi says that Heraclius "may always have felt some reserve in his relations with" St. Theodore. During Lent 613, Heraclius asked for St. Theodore's blessing in fighting the Persians. St. Theodore blessed him and invited him to dinner, but Heraclius refused because of time concerns. However, the saint claimed that because he did not accept the saint's gifts is a "sign of our defeat". Indeed, Heraclius lost the Battle of Antioch.
He died on April 22, 613. His remains were quickly brought to Constantinople to protect them from the Persian war and to add divine protection to the city. An elaborate ceremony of the reception of the remains associated St. Theodore with Heraclius's regime.
References
Kaegi, Walter Emil (2003), Heraclius: emperor of Byzantium, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-81459-6
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Today's Snippet I: Byzantine Empire - Part 1
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| Byzantine Empire under Justanian IRule |
Several events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the transitional period during which the Roman Empire's east and west divided. In 285, the emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305) partitioned the Roman Empire's administration into eastern and western halves. Between 324 and 330, Constantine I (r. 306–337) transferred the main capital from Rome to Byzantium, later known as Constantinople ("City of Constantine") and Nova Roma ("New Rome"). Under Theodosius I (r. 379–395), Christianity became the Empire's official state religion and others such as Roman polytheism were proscribed. And finally, under the reign Heraclius (r. 610–641), the Empire's military and administration were restructured and adopted Greek for official use instead of Latin.
The borders of the Empire evolved a great deal over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Justinian I (r. 527–565), the Empire reached its greatest extent after reconquering much of the historically Roman western Mediterranean coast, including north Africa, Italy, and Rome itself, which it held for two more centuries. During the reign of Maurice (r. 582–602), the Empire's eastern frontier was expanded and north stabilised. However, his assassination caused a two decade-long war with Sassanid Persia which exhausted the Empire's resources and contributed to major territorial losses during the Arab–Byzantine wars of the 7th century. During the 10th century Macedonian dynasty, the Empire experienced something of a renaissance, but lost much of Asia Minor to the Seljuk Turks after 1071.
The final centuries of the Empire were marked by near continuous decline. It struggled to recover during the 12th century, but was delivered a mortal blow by the Fourth Crusade, when Constantinople was sacked and the Empire dissolved and divided into competing Byzantine Greek and Latin realms. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople and re-establishment of the Empire in 1261, Byzantium remained only one of many small rival states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. This volatile period lead to its progressive annexation by the Ottomans over the 15th century.
Nomenclature
The first use of the term "Byzantine" to label the later years of the Roman Empire was in 1557, when the German historian Hieronymus Wolf published his work Corpus Historiæ Byzantinæ, a collection of historical sources. The term comes from "Byzantium", the name of the city of Constantinople before it became the capital of Constantine. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre (Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae), and in 1680 of Du Cange's Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of "Byzantine" among French authors, such as Montesquieu. However, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. As regards the English historiography in particular, the first occasion of the "Byzantine Empire" appears in a 1857 work of George Finlay (History of the Byzantine Empire from 716 to 1057).The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the "Roman Empire", the "Empire of the Romans" (Latin: Imperium Romanum, Imperium Romanorum; Greek: Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων Basileia tōn Rhōmaiōn, Ἀρχὴ τῶν Ῥωμαίων Archē tōn Rhōmaiōn), "Romania" (Latin: Romania; Greek: Ῥωμανία Rhōmania), the "Roman Republic" (Latin: Res Publica Romana; Greek: Πολιτεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων Politeia tōn Rhōmaiōn), Graikia (Greek: Γραικία), and also as Rhōmais (Greek: Ῥωμαΐς).
Although the Byzantine Empire had a multi-ethnic character during most of its history and preserved Romano-Hellenistic traditions, it became identified by its western and northern contemporaries with its increasingly predominant Greek element. The occasional use of the term "Empire of the Greeks" (Latin: Imperium Graecorum) in the West to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire and of the Byzantine Emperor as Imperator Graecorum (Emperor of the Greeks) were also used to separate it from the prestige of the Roman Empire within the new kingdoms of the West.
The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor, was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. Needing Charlemagne's support in his struggle against his enemies in Rome, Leo used the lack of a male occupant of the throne of the Roman Empire at the time to claim that it was vacant and that he could therefore crown a new Emperor himself. Whenever the Popes or the rulers of the West made use of the name Roman to refer to the Eastern Roman Emperors, they usually preferred the term Imperator Romaniae instead of Imperator Romanorum, a title that they applied only to Charlemagne and his successors.
No such distinction existed in the Persian, Islamic, and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more straightforwardly seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world it was known primarily as روم (Rûm).
History
Early history
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| The Baptism of Constantine |
The west also suffered more heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD. This distinction between the established Hellenised East and the younger Latinised West persisted and became increasingly important in later centuries, leading to a gradual estrangement of the two worlds.
Divisions of the Roman Empire
In order to maintain control and improve administration, various schemes to divide the work of the Roman Emperor by sharing it between individuals were tried between 285 and 324, from 337 to 350, from 364 to 392, and again between 395 and 480. Although the administrative subdivisions varied, they generally involved a division of labour between East and West. Each division was a form of power-sharing (or even job-sharing), for the ultimate imperium was not divisible and therefore the empire remained legally one state—although the co-emperors often saw each other as rivals or enemies rather than partners.In 293, Diocletian created a new administrative system (the tetrarchy), in order to guarantee security in all endangered regions of his Empire. He associated himself with a co-emperor (Augustus), and each co-emperor then adopted a young colleague given the title of Caesar, to share in their rule and eventually to succeed the senior partner. The tetrarchy collapsed, however, in 313 and a few years later Constantine I reunited the two administrative divisions of the Empire as sole Augustus.
Recentralisation
In 330, Constantine moved the seat of the Empire to Constantinople, which he founded as a second Rome on the site of Byzantium, a city well-positioned astride the trade routes between East and West. Constantine introduced important changes into the Empire's military, monetary, civil and religious institutions. As regards his economic policies in particular, he has been accused by certain scholars of "reckless fiscality", but the gold solidus he introduced became a stable currency that transformed the economy and promoted development.Under Constantine, Christianity did not become the exclusive religion of the state, but enjoyed imperial preference, because the emperor supported it with generous privileges. Constantine established the principle that emperors could not settle questions of doctrine on their own, but should summon instead general ecclesiastical councils for that purpose. His convening of both the Synod of Arles and the First Council of Nicaea indicated his interest in the unity of the Church, and showcased his claim to be its head.
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| The Roman Empire during the reigns of Leo I (east) and Majorian (west) in 460 AD. Roman rule in the west would last less than two more decades, whereas the territory of the east would remain static until the reconquests of Justinian I. |
To fend off the Huns, Theodosius had to pay an enormous annual tribute to Attila. His successor, Marcian, refused to continue to pay the tribute, but Attila had already diverted his attention to the West. After his death in 453, the Hunnic Empire collapsed, and many of the remaining Huns were often hired as mercenaries by Constantinople.
Loss of the western Roman Empire
After the fall of Attila, the Eastern Empire enjoyed a period of peace, while the Western Empire deteriorated in continuing migration and expansion by Germanic nations (its end is usually dated in 476 when the Germanic Roman general Odoacer deposed the titular Western Emperor Romulus Augustulus). In 480 Emperor Zeno abolished the division of the Empire making himself sole Emperor. Odoacer, now ruler of Italy, was nominally Zeno's subordinate but acted with complete autonomy, eventually providing support of a rebellion against the Emperor.Zeno negotiated with the invading Ostrogoths, who had settled in Moesia, convincing the Gothic king Theodoric to depart for Italy as magister militum per Italiam ("commander in chief for Italy") with the aim to depose Odoacer. By urging Theodoric into conquering Italy, Zeno rid the Eastern Empire of an unruly subordinate (Odoacer) and moved another (Theodoric) further from the heart of the Empire. After Odoacer's defeat in 493, Theodoric ruled Italy on his own, although he was never recognised by the eastern emperors as "king" (rex).
In 491, Anastasius I, an aged civil officer of Roman origin, became Emperor, but it was not until 497 that the forces of the new emperor effectively took the measure of Isaurian resistance. Anastasius revealed himself as an energetic reformer and an able administrator. He perfected Constantine I's coinage system by definitively setting the weight of the copper follis, the coin used in most everyday transactions. He also reformed the tax system and permanently abolished the chrysargyron tax. The State Treasury contained the enormous sum of 320,000 lbs (145,150 kg) of gold when Anastasius died in 518.
Reconquest of the western provinces
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| Justinian I depicted on one of the famous mosaics of the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna. |
In 529, a ten-man commission chaired by John the Cappadocian revised the Roman law and created a new codification of laws and jurists' extracts. In 534, the Code was updated and, along with the enactements promulgated by Justinian after 534, it formed the system of law used for most of the rest of the Byzantine era.
The western conquests began in 533, as Justinian sent his general Belisarius to reclaim the former province of Africa from the Vandals who had been in control since 429 with their capital at Carthage. Their success came with surprising ease, but it was not until 548 that the major local tribes were subdued. In Ostrogothic Italy, the deaths of Theodoric, his nephew and heir Athalaric, and his daughter Amalasuntha had left her murderer, Theodahad (r. 534–536), on the throne despite his weakened authority.
In 535, a small Byzantine expedition to Sicily met with easy success, but the Goths soon stiffened their resistance, and victory did not come until 540, when Belisarius captured Ravenna, after successful sieges of Naples and Rome. In 535–536, Theodahad sent Pope Agapetus I to Constantinople to request the removal of Byzantine forces from Sicily, Dalmatia, and Italy. Although Agapetus failed in his mission to sign a peace with Justinian, he succeeded in having the Monophysite Patriarch Anthimus I of Constantinople denounced, despite empress Theodora's support and protection.
The Ostrogoths were soon reunited under the command of King Totila and captured Rome in 546. Belisarius, who had been sent back to Italy in 544, was eventually recalled to Constantinople in 549. The arrival of the Armenian eunuch Narses in Italy (late 551) with an army of some 35,000 men marked another shift in Gothic fortunes. Totila was defeated at the Battle of Taginae and his successor, Teia, was defeated at the Battle of Mons Lactarius (October 552). Despite continuing resistance from a few Gothic garrisons and two subsequent invasions by the Franks and Alemanni, the war for the Italian peninsula was at an end. In 551, Athanagild, a noble from Visigothic Hispania, sought Justinian's help in a rebellion against the king, and the emperor dispatched a force under Liberius, a successful military commander. The Empire held on to a small slice of the Iberian Peninsula coast until the reign of Heraclius.
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| The Eastern Roman Empire in 600 AD during the reign of Emperor Maurice. |
During the 6th century, the traditional Greco-Roman culture was still influential in the Eastern empire with prominent representatives such as the natural philosopher John Philoponus. Nevertheless, Christian philosophy and culture were dominant and began to replace the older culture. Hymns written by Romanos the Melodist marked the development of the Divine Liturgy, while architects and builders worked to complete the new Church of the Holy Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, which was designed to replace an older church destroyed during the Nika Revolt. The Hagia Sophia stands today as one of the major monuments of Byzantine architectural history. During the 6th and 7th centuries, the Empire was struck by a series of epidemics, which greatly devastated the population and contributed to a significant economic decline and a weakening of the Empire.
After Justinian died in 565, his successor, Justin II refused to pay the large tribute to the Persians. Meanwhile, the Germanic Lombards invaded Italy; by the end of the century only a third of Italy was in Byzantine hands. Justin's successor, Tiberius II, choosing between his enemies, awarded subsidies to the Avars while taking military action against the Persians. Though Tiberius' general, Maurice, led an effective campaign on the eastern frontier, subsidies failed to restrain the Avars. They captured the Balkan fortress of Sirmium in 582, while the Slavs began to make inroads across the Danube.
Maurice, who meanwhile succeeded Tiberius, intervened in a Persian civil war, placed the legitimate Khosrau II back on the throne and married his daughter to him. Maurice's treaty with his new brother-in-law enlarged the territories of the Empire to the East and allowed the energetic Emperor to focus on the Balkans. By 602, a series of successful Byzantine campaigns had pushed the Avars and Slavs back across the Danube.
Shrinking borders
Heraclian dynasty
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| The Byzantine Empire in 650 - by this year it lost all of its southern provinces except the Exarchate of Africa. |
Following the ascension of Heraclius, the Sassanid advance pushed deep into Asia Minor, occupying Damascus and Jerusalem and removing the True Cross to Ctesiphon. The counter-attack launched by Heraclius took on the character of a holy war, and an acheiropoietos image of Christ was carried as a military standard (similarly, when Constantinople was saved from an Avar siege in 626, the victory was attributed to the icons of the Virgin that were led in procession by Patriarch Sergius about the walls of the city).
The main Sassanid force was destroyed at Nineveh in 627, and in 629 Heraclius restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in a majestic ceremony. The war had exhausted both the Byzantines and Sassanids, however, and left them extremely vulnerable to the Muslim forces that emerged in the following years. The Byzantines suffered a crushing defeat by the Arabs at the Battle of Yarmouk in 636, while Ctesiphon fell in 634.
Siege of Constantinople (674–678)
The Arabs, now firmly in control of Syria and the Levant, sent frequent raiding parties deep into Asia Minor, and in 674–678 laid siege to Constantinople itself. The Arab fleet was finally repulsed through the use of Greek fire, and a thirty-years' truce was signed between the Empire and the Umayyad Caliphate.However, the Anatolian raids continued unabated, and accelerated the demise of classical urban culture, with the inhabitants of many cities either refortifying much smaller areas within the old city walls, or relocating entirely to nearby fortresses. Constantinople itself dropped substantially in size, from 500,000 inhabitants to just 40,000–70,000, and, like other urban centres, it was partly ruralised. The city also lost the free grain shipments in 618, after Egypt fell first to the Persians and then to the Arabs, and public wheat distribution ceased.The void left by the disappearance of the old semi-autonomous civic institutions was filled by the theme system, which entailed dividing Asia Minor into "provinces" occupied by distinct armies that assumed civil authority and answered directly to the imperial administration. This system may have had its roots in certain ad hoc measures taken by Heraclius, but over the course of the 7th century it developed into an entirely new system of imperial governance. The massive cultural and institutional restructuring of the Empire consequent on the loss of territory in the 7th century has been said to have caused a decisive break in east Mediterranean Romanness and that the Byzantine state is subsequently best understood as another successor state rather than a real continuation of the Roman Empire.
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| The Greek fire was first used by the Byzantine Navy during the Byzantine-Arab Wars (from the Madrid Skylitzes, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid). |
In 681, Constantine IV signed a treaty with the Bulgar khan Asparukh, and the new Bulgarian state assumed sovereignty over a number of Slavic tribes that had previously, at least in name, recognised Byzantine rule. In 687–688, the final Heraclian emperor, Justinian II, led an expedition against the Slavs and Bulgarians, and made significant gains, although the fact that he had to fight his way from Thrace to Macedonia demonstrates the degree to which Byzantine power in the north Balkans had declined.
Justinian II attempted to break the power of the urban aristocracy through severe taxation and the appointment of "outsiders" to administrative posts. He was driven from power in 695, and took shelter first with the Khazars and then with the Bulgarians. In 705, he returned to Constantinople with the armies of the Bulgarian khan Tervel, retook the throne, and instituted a reign of terror against his enemies. With his final overthrow in 711, supported once more by the urban aristocracy, the Heraclian dynasty came to an end.
Isaurian dynasty to the ascension of Basil I
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| The Byzantine Empire at the accession of Leo III, c. 717. Striped area indicates land raided by the Arabs. |
Taking advantage of the Empire's weakness after the Revolt of Thomas the Slav in the early 820s, the Arabs reemerged and captured Crete. They also successfully attacked Sicily, but in 863 general Petronas gained a huge victory against Umar al-Aqta, the emir of Melitene. Under the leadership of emperor Krum, the Bulgarian threat also reemerged, but in 815–816 Krum's son, Omurtag, signed a peace treaty with Leo V.
Religious dispute over iconoclasm
The 8th and early 9th centuries were also dominated by controversy and religious division over Iconoclasm, which was the main political issue in the Empire for over a century. Icons (here meaning all forms of religious imagery) were banned by Leo and Constantine from around 730, leading to revolts by iconodules (supporters of icons) throughout the empire. After the efforts of empress Irene, the Second Council of Nicaea met in 787 and affirmed that icons could be venerated but not worshiped. Irene is said to have endeavoured to negotiate a marriage between herself and Charlemagne, but, according to Theophanes the Confessor, the scheme was frustrated by Aetios, one of her favourites.In the early 9th century, Leo V reintroduced the policy of iconoclasm, but in 843 empress Theodora restored the veneration of icons with the help of Patriarch Methodios. Iconoclasm played a part in the further alienation of East from West, which worsened during the so-called Photian schism, when Pope Nicholas I challenged the elevation of Photios to the patriarchate.
Macedonian dynasty and resurgence (867–1025)
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| The Byzantine Empire, c. 867. |
In addition to a reassertion of Byzantine military power and political authority, the period under the Macedonian dynasty is characterised by a cultural revival in spheres such as philosophy and the arts. There was a conscious effort to restore the brilliance of the period before the Slavic and subsequent Arab invasions, and the Macedonian era has been dubbed the "Golden Age" of Byzantium. Though the Empire was significantly smaller than during the reign of Justinian, it had regained significant strength, as the remaining territories were less geographically dispersed and more politically, economically, and culturally integrated.
Wars against the Arabs
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| The general Leo Phokas defeats the Arabs at Andrassos in 960, from the Madrid Skylitzes. |
By contrast, the Byzantine position in Southern Italy was gradually consolidated so that by 873 Bari had once again come under Byzantine rule, and most of Southern Italy would remain in the Empire for the next 200 years. On the more important eastern front, the Empire rebuilt its defences and went on the offensive. The Paulicians were defeated and their capital of Tephrike (Divrigi) taken, while the offensive against the Abbasid Caliphate began with the recapture of Samosata.
Under Michael's son and successor, Leo VI the Wise, the gains in the east against the now weak Abbasid Caliphate continued. However, Sicily was lost to the Arabs in 902, and in 904 Thessaloniki, the Empire's second city, was sacked by an Arab fleet. The weakness of the Empire in the naval sphere was quickly rectified, so that a few years later a Byzantine fleet had re-occupied Cyprus, lost in the 7th century, and also stormed Laodicea in Syria. Despite this revenge, the Byzantines were still unable to strike a decisive blow against the Muslims, who inflicted a crushing defeat on the imperial forces when they attempted to regain Crete in 911.
The death of the Bulgarian tsar Simeon I in 927 severely weakened the Bulgarians, allowing the Byzantines to concentrate on the eastern front. Melitene was permanently recaptured in 934, and in 943 the famous general John Kourkouas continued the offensive in Mesopotamia with some noteworthy victories, which culminated in the reconquest of Edessa. The latter was especially celebrated for the return to Constantinople of the venerated Mandylion, a relic with the purported portrait of Christ on it.
The soldier-emperors Nikephoros II Phokas (reigned 963–969) and John I Tzimiskes (969–976) expanded the empire well into Syria, defeating the emirs of north-west Iraq. The great city of Aleppo was taken by Nikephoros in 962 and in 963 the Arabs were decisively expelled from Crete. The recapture of Crete put an end to Arab raids in the Aegean, allowing mainland Greece to flourish once again. Cyprus was permanently retaken in 965, and in 969 Nikephoros' career culminated in the recapture of Antioch, which he incorporated as a province of the Empire.
Nikephoros' successor John Tzimiskes recaptured Damascus, Beirut, Acre, Sidon, Caesarea and Tiberias, putting Byzantine armies within striking distance of Jerusalem, although the Muslim power centres in Iraq and Egypt were left untouched. After much campaigning in the north, the last Arab threat to Byzantium, the rich province of Sicily, was targeted by Basil II in 1025, who died before his expedition could be completed. Nevertheless by the time of Basil II's death, the Empire stretched from the straits of Messina to the Euphrates, and from the Danube to Syria.
Wars against the Bulgarian Empire
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| Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025). |
Leo the Wise died in 912, and hostilities soon resumed with Simeon marching to Constantinople at the head of a large army. Though the walls of the city were impregnable, the Byzantine administration was in disarray and Simeon was invited into the city where he was granted the crown of basileus (emperor) of Bulgaria and had the young emperor Constantine VII marry one of his daughters. When a revolt in Constantinople halted his dynastic project, he again invaded Thrace and conquered Adrianople. The Empire was now faced with the problem of having a powerful Christian state within a few days' marching distance from Constantinople, as well as with having to fight on two fronts.
A great imperial expedition under Leo Phocas and Romanos I Lekapenos ended again with a crushing Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Achelous (917), and the following year the Bulgarians were free to ravage Northern Greece. Adrianople was plundered once again in 923 and in 924 a Bulgarian army laid siege to Constantinople.
But Simeon died suddenly in 927 and Bulgarian power collapsed with him. Bulgaria and Byzantium entered a long period of peaceful relations, and the Empire was now free to concentrate on the eastern front against the Muslims. In 968, Bulgaria was overrun by the Rus' under Sviatoslav I of Kiev, but three years later, John I Tzimiskes defeated the Rus' and re-incorporated Eastern Bulgaria into the Byzantine Empire.
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| The extent of the Empire under Basil II. |
At the Battle of Kleidion in 1014 the Bulgarians were annihilated: their army was captured, and it is said that 99 out of every 100 men were blinded, with the remaining hundredth man left with one eye so as to lead his compatriots home. When Tsar Samuil saw the broken remains of his once gallant army, he died of shock. By 1018, the last Bulgarian strongholds had surrendered, and the country became part of the Empire. This victory restored the Danube frontier, which had not been held since the days of the emperor Heraclius.
Relations with the Kievan Russians
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| Rus' under the walls of Constantinople (860). |
In 941, they appeared on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, but this time they were crushed, an indication of the improvements in the Byzantine military position after 907, when only diplomacy had been able to push back the invaders. Basil II could not ignore the emerging Rus' power, and, following the example of his predecessors, he used religion as a means for the achievement of political purposes.
Rus'–Byzantine relations became closer following the marriage of the Anna Porphyrogenita to Vladimir the Great in 988, and the subsequent Christianisation of the Rus'. Byzantine priests, architects and artists were invited to work on numerous cathedrals and churches around Rus', expanding Byzantine cultural influence even further, while numerous Rus' served in the Byzantine army as mercenaries, most notably as the famous Varangian Guard.
However, even after the Christianisation of the Rus', relations were not always friendly. The most serious conflict between the two powers was the war of 968–971 in Bulgaria, but several Rus' raiding expeditions against the Byzantine cities of the Black Sea coast and Constantinople itself are also recorded. Although most were repulsed, they were often followed by treaties that were generally favourable to the Rus', such as the one concluded at the end of the war of 1043, during which the Rus' gave an indication of their ambitions to compete with the Byzantines as an independent power.
Apex
By 1025, the date of Basil II's death, the Byzantine Empire then stretched from Armenia in the east to Calabria in Southern Italy in the west. Many successes had been achieved, ranging from the conquest of Bulgaria, to the annexation of parts of Georgia and Armenia, and the reconquest of Crete, Cyprus, and the important city of Antioch. These were not temporary tactical gains, but long-term reconquests.Leo VI achieved the complete codification of the whole of Byzantine law in Greek. This monumental work of 60 volumes became the foundation of all subsequent Byzantine law and is still studied today. Leo also reformed the administration of the Empire, redrawing the borders of the administrative subdivisions (the Themata, or "Themes") and tidying up the system of ranks and privileges, as well as regulating the behaviour of Constantinople's various trade guilds. Leo's reform did much to reduce the previous fragmentation of the Empire, which henceforth had one center of power, Constantinople. However, the increasing military success of the Empire greatly enriched and empowered the provincial nobility with respect to the peasantry, who were essentially reduced to a state of serfdom.
Under the Macedonian emperors, the city of Constantinople flourished, becoming the largest and wealthiest city in Europe, with a population of approximately 400,000 in the 9th and 10th centuries. During this period, the Byzantine Empire employed a strong civil service staffed by competent aristocrats that oversaw the collection of taxes, domestic administration, and foreign policy. The Macedonian emperors also increased the Empire's wealth by fostering trade with Western Europe, particularly through the sale of silk and metalwork.
....continued, Tomorrow Part II
References
- Ahrweiler, Hélène; Aymard, Maurice (2000). Les Européens. Paris: Hermann. ISBN 2-7056-6409-2.
- Angelov, Dimiter (2007). Imperial Ideology and Political Thought in Byzantium (1204–1330). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-85703-1.
- Haldon, John (2001). The Byzantine Wars: Battles and Campaigns of the Byzantine Era. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 0-7524-1795-9
- Hussey, J. M. (1966). The Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. IV: The Byzantine Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Runciman, Steven (1966). Byzantine Civilisation. London: Edward Arnold (publisher) Limited. ISBN 1-56619-574-8.
- Runciman, Steven (1990) [1929]. The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus and his Reign. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-06164-4.
- Toynbee, Arnold Joseph (1972). Constantine Porphyrogenitus and His World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-215253-X.
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Today's Snippet II: Constantinople
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| Map of Byzantine Constantinople |
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| Constantinople in the Byzantine era |
Eventually the empire of Christian Eastern Orthodoxy in the east was reduced to just the capital and its environs, falling to the Ottomans in the historic battle of 1453.
The city itself remained and prospered as the Muslim capital in the Ottoman period; however, scholars normally reserve the name "Constantinople" for the city in Christian period 330–1453, preferring "Istanbul" for the city's name in later centuries. However, many Western writers have continued to refer to the city by its older name "Constantinople" into modern times. The name "Constantinople" is still used by members of the Eastern Orthodox Church in the title of one of their most important leaders, the Orthodox patriarch based in the city, referred to as "His Most Divine All-Holiness the Archbishop of Constantinople New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch."
Constantinople was famed for its massive defenses. Although besieged on numerous occasions by various peoples, it was taken only in 1204 by the army of the Fourth Crusade, in 1261 by Michael VIII Palaiologos), and – finally – in 1453 by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. A first wall was erected by Constantine I, and the city was surrounded by a double wall lying about 2 km (1.2 miles) to the west of the first wall, begun during the 5th century by Theodosius II. The city was built on seven hills as well as on the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara, and thus presented an impregnable fortress enclosing magnificent palaces, domes and towers.
It was also famed for architectural masterpieces such as the church of Hagia Sophia, the sacred palace of the emperors, the hippodrome, and the Golden Gate, lining the arcaded avenues and squares. Constantinople contained numerous artistic and literary treasures before it was sacked in 1204 and 1453. It was virtually depopulated when it fell to the Ottoman Turks, but the city recovered rapidly, becoming once again by the mid-1600s the world's largest city as the Ottoman capital.
Names
The city was originally founded as a Greek colony under the name of Byzantium in the 7th century BC. It took on the name of Konstantinoupolis ("city of Constantine", Constantinople) after its re-foundation under Roman emperor Constantine I, who transferred the imperial capital from its historic base, Rome, to Byzantium in 330 AD and designated his new capital Nova Roma or "New Rome." The modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin (εις την πόλιν), meaning "into the City" or "to the City". This name was used in Turkish alongside Kostantiniyye, the more formal adaptation of the original Constantinople, during the period of Ottoman rule, while western languages mostly continued to refer to the city as Constantinople until the early 20th century. After the creation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the Turkish government began to formally object to the use of Constantinople in other languages and ask that others use the more common name for the city.History
Byzantium
Constantinople was founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine I (272–337 AD) on the site of an already-existing city, Byzantium, which was settled in the early days of Greek colonial expansion, probably around 671–662 BC. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour.306–337
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| Emperor Constantine I presents a representation of the city of Constantinople as tribute to an enthroned Mary and Christ Child in this church mosaic. St Sophia, c. 1000 |
Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330. Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis. Yet, at first, Constantine's new Rome did not have all the dignities of old Rome. It possessed a proconsul, rather than an urban prefect. It had no praetors, tribunes, or quaestors. Although it did have senators, they held the title clarus, not clarissimus, like those of Rome. It also lacked the panoply of other administrative offices regulating the food supply, police, statues, temples, sewers, aqueducts, or other public works. The new programme of building was carried out in great haste: columns, marbles, doors, and tiles were taken wholesale from the temples of the empire and moved to the new city. In similar fashion, many of the greatest works of Greek and Roman art were soon to be seen in its squares and streets. The emperor stimulated private building by promising householders gifts of land from the imperial estates in Asiana and Pontica and on 18 May 332 he announced that, as in Rome, free distributions of food would be made to the citizens. At the time, the amount is said to have been 80,000 rations a day, doled out from 117 distribution points around the city.
Constantine laid out a new square at the centre of old Byzantium, naming it the Augustaeum. The new senate-house (or Curia) was housed in a basilica on the east side. On the south side of the great square was erected the Great Palace of the Emperor with its imposing entrance, the Chalke, and its ceremonial suite known as the Palace of Daphne. Nearby was the vast Hippodrome for chariot-races, seating over 80,000 spectators, and the famed Baths of Zeuxippus. At the western entrance to the Augustaeum was the Milion, a vaulted monument from which distances were measured across the Eastern Roman Empire.
From the Augustaeum led a great street, the Mese (Greek: Μέση [Οδός] lit. "Middle [Street]"), lined with colonnades. As it descended the First Hill of the city and climbed the Second Hill, it passed on the left the Praetorium or law-court. Then it passed through the oval Forum of Constantine where there was a second Senate-house and a high column with a statue of Constantine himself in the guise of Helios, crowned with a halo of seven rays and looking toward the rising sun. From there the Mese passed on and through the Forum Tauri and then the Forum Bovis, and finally up the Seventh Hill (or Xerolophus) and through to the Golden Gate in the Constantinian Wall. After the construction of the Theodosian Walls in the early 5th century, it was extended to the new Golden Gate, reaching a total length of seven Roman miles.
337–527
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| Theodosius I was the last Roman emperor who ruled over an undivided empire (detail from the Obelisk at the Hippodrome of Constantinople |
The importance of Constantinople gradually increased. After the shock of the Battle of Adrianople in 378, in which the emperor Valens with the flower of the Roman armies was destroyed by the Visigoths within a few days' march, the city looked to its defences, and in 413–414, Theodosius II built the 18-meter (60-foot)-tall triple-wall fortifications, which were never to be breached until the coming of gunpowder. Theodosius also founded a University near the Forum of Taurus, on 27 February 425.
Uldin, a prince of the Huns, appeared on the Danube about this time and advanced into Thrace, but he was deserted by many of his followers, who joined with the Romans in driving their king back north of the river. Subsequent to this, new walls were built to defend the city, and the fleet on the Danube improved.
In due course, the barbarians overran the Western Roman Empire: Its emperors retreated to Ravenna, and it diminished to nothing. Thereafter, Constantinople became in truth the largest city of the Roman Empire and of the world. Emperors were no longer peripatetic between various court capitals and palaces. They remained in their palace in the Great City, and sent generals to command their armies. The wealth of the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia flowed into Constantinople.
527–565
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| Map of Constantinople (1422) by Florentine cartographer Cristoforo Buondelmonti is the oldest surviving map of the city, and the only one that predates the Turkish conquest of the city in 1453 |
Chariot-racing had been important in Rome for centuries. In Constantinople, the hippodrome became over time increasingly a place of political significance. It was where (as a shadow of the popular elections of old Rome) the people by acclamation showed their approval of a new emperor, and also where they openly criticized the government, or clamoured for the removal of unpopular ministers. In the time of Justinian, public order in Constantinople became a critical political issue.
Throughout the late Roman and early Byzantine periods, Christianity was resolving fundamental questions of identity, and the dispute between the orthodox and the monophysites became the cause of serious disorder, expressed through allegiance to the horse-racing parties of the Blues and the Greens. The partisans of the Blues and the Greens were said to affect untrimmed facial hair, head hair shaved at the front and grown long at the back, and wide-sleeved tunics tight at the wrist; and to form gangs to engage in night-time muggings and street violence. At last these disorders took the form of a major rebellion of 532, known as the "Nika" riots (from the battle-cry of "Victory!" of those involved).
Fires started by the Nika rioters consumed Constantine's basilica of St Sophia, the city's principal church, which lay to the north of the Augustaeum. Justinian commissioned Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus to replace it with a new and incomparable St Sophia. This was the great cathedral of the Orthodox Church, whose dome was said to be held aloft by God alone, and which was directly connected to the palace so that the imperial family could attend services without passing through the streets. The dedication took place on 26 December 537 in the presence of the emperor, who exclaimed, "O Solomon, I have outdone thee!" St Sophia was served by 600 people including 80 priests, and cost 20,000 pounds of gold to build.
Justinian also had Anthemius and Isidore demolish and replace the original Church of the Holy Apostles built by Constantine with a new church under the same dedication. This was designed in the form of an equal-armed cross with five domes, and ornamented with beautiful mosaics. This church was to remain the burial place of the Emperors from Constantine himself until the 11th century. When the city fell to the Turks in 1453, the church was demolished to make room for the tomb of Mehmet II the Conqueror. Justinian was also concerned with other aspects of the city's built environment, legislating against the abuse of laws prohibiting building within 100 feet (30 m) of the sea front, in order to protect the view.
During Justinian I's reign, the city's population reached about 500,000 people. However, the social fabric of Constantinople was also damaged by the onset of the Plague of Justinian between 541–542 AD. It killed perhaps 40% of the city's inhabitants.
Survival, 565–717
In the early 7th century, the Avars and later the Bulgars overwhelmed much of the Balkans, threatening Constantinople from the west. Simultaneously, the Persian Sassanids overwhelmed the Prefecture of the East and penetrated deep into Anatolia. Heraclius, son to the exarch of Africa, set sail for the city and assumed the purple. He found the military situation so dire that he is said at first to have contemplated withdrawing the imperial capital to Carthage, but relented after the people of Constantinople begged him to stay. The citizens lost their right to free grain in 618 when Heraclius realised that the city no longer could be supplied from Egypt as a result of the Persian wars: the population dropped substantially in size as a result.While the city withstood a siege, Heraclius campaigned deep into Persian territory and briefly restored the status quo in 628, when the Persians surrendered all their conquests. However, further sieges followed in the course of attacks from the Arabs, a first from 674 to 678, and a second from 717 to 718. At this time the Theodosian Walls kept the city impregnable from the land, while a newly discovered incendiary substance known as "Greek Fire" allowed the Byzantine navy to destroy the Arab fleets and keep the city supplied. In the second siege, decisive help was rendered by the Bulgars.
717–1025
 |
| Emperor Leo VI (886–912) adoring Jesus Christ. Mosaic above the Imperial Gate in the Hagia Sophia. |
Theodora, widow of the Emperor Theophilus (died 842), acted as regent during the minority of her son Michael III, who was said to have been introduced to dissolute habits by her brother Bardas. When Michael assumed power in 856, he became known for excessive drunkenness, appeared in the hippodrome as a charioteer and burlesqued the religious processions of the clergy. He removed Theodora from the Great Palace to the Carian Palace and later to the monastery of Gastria, but, after the death of Bardas, she was released to live in the palace of St Mamas; she also had a rural residence at the Anthemian Palace, where Michael was assassinated in 867.
In 860, an attack was made on the city by a new principality set up a few years earlier at Kiev by Askold and Dir, two Varangian chiefs: Two hundred small vessels passed through the Bosporus and plundered the monasteries and other properties on the suburban Prince's Islands. Oryphas, the admiral of the Byzantine fleet, alerted the emperor Michael, who promptly put the invaders to flight; but the suddenness and savagery of the onslaught made a deep impression on the citizens.
In 980, the emperor Basil II received an unusual gift from Prince Vladimir of Kiev: 6,000 Varangian warriors, which Basil formed into a new bodyguard known as the Varangian Guard. They were known for their ferocity, honour, and loyalty. It is said that, in 1038, they were dispersed in winter quarters in the Thracesian theme when one of their number attempted to violate a countrywoman, but in the struggle she seized his sword and killed him; instead of taking revenge, however, his comrades applauded her conduct, compensated her with all his possessions, and exposed his body without burial as if he had committed suicide. However, following the death of an Emperor, they became known also for plunder in the Imperial palaces. Later in the 11th Century the Varangian Guard became dominated by Anglo-Saxons who preferred this way of life to subjugation by the new Norman kings of England.
The Book of the Eparch, which dates to the 10th century, gives a detailed picture of the city's commercial life and its organization at that time. The corporations in which the tradesmen of Constantinople were organised were supervised by the Eparch, who regulated such matters as production, prices, import, and export. Each guild had its own monopoly, and tradesmen might not belong to more than one. It is an impressive testament to the strength of tradition how little these arrangements had changed since the office, then known by the Latin version of its title, had been set up in 330 to mirror the urban prefecture of Rome. In the 9th and 10th centuries, Constantinople had a population of between 500,000 and 800,000.
Iconoclast controversy
In the 8th and 9th centuries, the iconoclast movement caused serious political unrest throughout the Empire. The emperor Leo III issued a decree in 726 against images, and ordered the destruction of a statue of Christ over one of the doors of the Chalke, an act that was fiercely resisted by the citizens. Constantine V convoked a church council in 754, which condemned the worship of images, after which many treasures were broken, burned, or painted over with depictions of trees, birds or animals: One source refers to the church of the Holy Virgin at Blachernae as having been transformed into a "fruit store and aviary". Following the death of his son Leo IV in 780, the empress Irene restored the veneration of images through the agency of the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.The iconoclast controversy returned in the early 9th century, only to be resolved once more in 843 during the regency of Empress Theodora, who restored the icons. These controversies contributed to the deterioration of relations between the Western and the Eastern Churches.
Prelude to the Comnenian period, 1025–1081
In the late 11th century catastrophe struck with the unexpected and calamitous defeat of the imperial armies at the Battle of Manzikert in Armenia in 1071. The Emperor Romanus Diogenes was captured. The peace terms demanded by Alp Arslan, sultan of the Seljuk Turks, were not excessive, and Romanus accepted them. On his release, however, Romanus found that enemies had placed their own candidate on the throne in his absence; he surrendered to them and suffered death by torture, and the new ruler, Michael VII Ducas, refused to honour the treaty. In response, the Turks began to move into Anatolia in 1073. The collapse of the old defensive system meant that they met no opposition, and the empire's resources were distracted and squandered in a series of civil wars. Thousands of Turkoman tribesmen crossed the unguarded frontier and moved into Anatolia. By 1080, a huge area had been lost to the Empire, and the Turks were within striking distance of Constantinople.1081–1185
 |
| The Byzantine Empire under Manuel I, c. 1180 |
With the restoration of firm central government, the empire became fabulously wealthy. The population was rising (estimates for Constantinople in the 12th century vary from some 100,000 to 500,000), and towns and cities across the realm flourished. Meanwhile, the volume of money in circulation dramatically increased. This was reflected in Constantinople by the construction of the Blachernae palace, the creation of brilliant new works of art, and general prosperity at this time: an increase in trade, made possible by the growth of the Italian city-states, may have helped the growth of the economy. It is certain that the Venetians and others were active traders in Constantinople, making a living out of shipping goods between the Crusader Kingdoms of Outremer and the West, while also trading extensively with Byzantium and Egypt. The Venetians had factories on the north side of the Golden Horn, and large numbers of westerners were present in the city throughout the 12th century. Toward the end of Manuel I's reign, the number of foreigners in the city reached about 60,000–80,000 people out of a total population of about 400,000 people. In 1171, Constantinople also contained a small community of 2,500 Jews.
In artistic terms, the 12th century was a very productive period. There was a revival in the mosaic art, for example: Mosaics became more realistic and vivid, with an increased emphasis on depicting three-dimensional forms. There was an increased demand for art, with more people having access to the necessary wealth to commission and pay for such work. According to N.H. Baynes (Byzantium, An Introduction to East Roman Civilization):
- "With its love of luxury and passion for colour, the art of this age delighted in the production of masterpieces that spread the fame of Byzantium throughout the whole of the Christian world. Beautiful silks from the work-shops of Constantinople also portrayed in dazzling colour animals – lions, elephants, eagles, and griffins – confronting each other, or represented Emperors gorgeously arrayed on horseback or engaged in the chase."
- "From the tenth to the twelfth century Byzantium was the main source
of inspiration for the West. By their style, arrangement, and
iconography the mosaics of St. Mark's at Venice and of the cathedral at Torcello clearly reveal their Byzantine origin. Similarly those of the Palatine Chapel, the Martorana at Palermo, and the cathedral of Cefalù, together with the vast decoration of the cathedral at Monreale, demonstrate the influence of Byzantium on the Norman Court of Sicily in the twelfth century. Hispano-Moorish art was unquestionably derived from the Byzantine. Romanesque art
owes much to the East, from which it borrowed not only its decorative
forms but the plan of some of its buildings, as is proved, for instance,
by the domed churches of south-western France. Princes of Kiev, Venetian doges, abbots of Monte Cassino, merchants of Amalfi,
and the kings of Sicily all looked to Byzantium for artists or works of
art. Such was the influence of Byzantine art in the twelfth century,
that Russia, Venice, southern Italy and Sicily all virtually became
provincial centres dedicated to its production."
1185–1261
 |
| The Latin Empire, Empire of Nicaea, Empire of Trebizond, and the Despotate of Epirus. The borders are very uncertain |
In February, the people rose again: Alexius IV was imprisoned and executed, and Murzuphlus took the purple as Alexius V. He made some attempt to repair the walls and organise the citizenry, but there had been no opportunity to bring in troops from the provinces and the guards were demoralised by the revolution. An attack by the Crusaders on 6 April failed, but a second from the Golden Horn on 12 April succeeded, and the invaders poured in. Alexius V fled. The Senate met in St Sophia and offered the crown to Theodore Lascaris, who had married into the Angelid family, but it was too late. He came out with the Patriarch to the Golden Milestone before the Great Palace and addressed the Varangian Guard. Then the two of them slipped away with many of the nobility and embarked for Asia. By the next day the Doge and the leading Franks were installed in the Great Palace, and the city was given over to pillage for three days.
Sir Steven Runciman, historian of the Crusades, wrote that the sack of Constantinople is “unparalleled in history”.
“For nine centuries,” he goes on, “the great city had been the capital of Christian civilisation. It was filled with works of art that had survived from ancient Greece and with the masterpieces of its own exquisite craftsmen. The Venetians ... seized treasures and carried them off to adorn ... their town. But the Frenchmen and Flemings were filled with a lust for destruction. They rushed in a howling mob down the streets and through the houses, snatching up everything that glittered and destroying whatever they could not carry, pausing only to murder or to rape, or to break open the wine-cellars ... . Neither monasteries nor churches nor libraries were spared. In St Sophia itself, drunken soldiers could be seen tearing down the silken hangings and pulling the great silver iconostasis to pieces, while sacred books and icons were trampled under foot. While they drank merrily from the altar-vessels a prostitute set herself on the Patriarch’s throne and began to sing a ribald French song. Nuns were ravished in their convents. Palaces and hovels alike were entered and wrecked. Wounded women and children lay dying in the streets. For three days the ghastly scenes ... continued, till the huge and beautiful city was a shambles. ... When ... order was restored, ... citizens were tortured to make them reveal the goods that they had contrived to hide.
For the next half-century, Constantinople was the seat of the Latin Empire. The Byzantine nobility were scattered. Many went to Nicaea, where Theodore Lascaris set up an imperial court, or to Epirus, where Theodore Angelus did the same; others fled to Trebizond, where one of the Comneni had already with Georgian support established an independent seat of empire. Nicaea and Epirus both vied for the imperial title, and tried to recover Constantinople. In 1261, Constantinople was captured from its last Latin ruler, Baldwin II, by the forces of the Nicaean emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus.
1261–1453 and the Fall of Constantinopole
 |
| Conquest of Constantinople by Fausto Zonaro |
On 29 May 1453, Turkish sultan Mehmed II "the Conqueror" entered Constantinople after a 53–day siege during which his cannon had torn a huge hole in the Walls of Theodosius II. Constantinople (Ottoman Turkish: Konstantiniyye) became the third capital of the Ottoman Empire.
Mehmed had begun the siege on 6 April 1453. He had hired engineers to build cannons and bombs for the occasion. He also acquired scholars and imams to encourage the soldiers. He gave the Byzantine emperor Constantine Palaeologus (1449–1453) three chances to surrender the city, a duty enjoined by the Shariah (Muslim Holy Law). Mehmed guaranteed that the city's residents, including their riches, beliefs and honor, would be safe. However, Constantine did not accept these terms of surrender. After more than a month of fighting, Mehmed’s advisors were beginning to lose hope. Against their counsel, Mehmed continued to fight. The night before the final assault, he studied the previous attempts to take the city. He was comparing ways that would work and where they would not. On the morning of May 29, 1453 the sultan ordered the call of Azan (call to prayer). This was not a regular prayer session for religious reasons but rather a scare tactic. When the Byzantine forces saw the entire Ottoman army get on their knees to pray, the Byzantine army was witnessing how united the Ottoman Turks were and this worried them. As Eversley put it: "Their minds were defeated before their bodies."
Since the Byzantine army was still holding on after that defeat, the sultan thought it was time to set up his secret weapon, a huge mobile tower. This tower could hold many soldiers who could be at the same level as the walls of the city, making it easier for them to break into Constantinople. The first group of Ottomans who entered the city were killed almost immediately, with the effect that the other Muslims began to retreat. Witnessing this, the sultan encouraged his soldiers. Soon after the sultan’s encouragement, two breaches were made in the wall allowing the Muslims to enter the city. In a last attempt to protect it, Constantine attacked the enemy sword raised; however he was defeated and killed.
The city was plundered for three days. In the end, the population which had not been able to escape was deported to Edirne, Bursa and other Ottoman cities, leaving the city deserted except for the Jews of Balat and the Genoese of Pera.
Other than the variations in their stories, the battle occurs in the same manner and neither the Byzantine nor Muslim narratives portrays the opposition in a brutal, negative light. As expected, however, each narrative portrays its side in a heroic light.
The historical narrative from the Ottoman Turkish point of view depicts Mehmed as a clever, strong conqueror: "The sultan ordered the setting up of his secret weapon which he had invented himself." By contrast, the narrative from the Byzantine side portrays final emperor Constantine Palaeologus as a valiant leader who gave his life for the cause of Orthodoxy. As quoted from a Byzantine essay: "[Constantine] charged into the sea of the enemy soldiers, hitting left and right in a final act of defiance."
Transition to the Ottoman era 1453–1922
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| Constantinople around 1896 |
Mehmed’s main concern with Constantinople had to do with rebuilding the city’s defenses and repopulation. Building projects were commenced immediately after the conquest, which included the repair of the walls, construction of the citadel, and building a new palace. Mehmed issued orders across his empire that Muslims, Christians, and Jews should resettle the city; he demanded that five thousand households needed to be transferred to Constantinople by September. From all over the Islamic empire, prisoners of war and deported people were sent to the city: these people were called "Sürgün" in Turkish (Greek: σουργουνιδες). Two centuries later, Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi gave a list of groups introduced into the city with their respective origins. Even today, many quarters of Istanbul, such as Aksaray, Çarşamba, bear the names of the places of origin of their inhabitants. However, many people escaped again from the city, and there were several outbreaks of plague, so that in 1459 Mehmet allowed the deported Greeks to come back to the city. This measure apparently had no great success, since French voyager Pierre Gilles writes in the middle of 16th century that the Greek population of Constantinople was unable to mention any name of the ancient Byzantine churches transformed in mosques or abandoned. This shows that the population substitution had been total.
Importance
Culture
Constantinople was the largest and richest urban center in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea during the late Eastern Roman Empire, mostly as a result of its strategic position commanding the trade routes between the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea. It would remain the capital of the eastern, Greek-speaking empire for over a thousand years. At its peak, roughly corresponding to the Middle Ages, it was the richest and largest European city, exerting a powerful cultural pull and dominating economic life in the Mediterranean. Visitors and merchants were especially struck by the beautiful monasteries and churches of the city, in particular, Hagia Sophia, or the Church of Holy Wisdom: A Russian 14th-century traveler, Stephen of Novgorod, wrote, "As for St Sophia, the human mind can neither tell it nor make description of it."It was especially important for preserving in its libraries manuscripts of Greek and Latin authors throughout a period when instability and disorder caused their mass-destruction in western Europe and north Africa: On the city's fall, thousands of these were brought by refugees to Italy, and played a key part in stimulating the Renaissance, and the transition to the modern world. The cumulative influence of the city on the west, over the many centuries of its existence, is incalculable. In terms of technology, art and culture, as well as sheer size, Constantinople was without parallel anywhere in Europe for a thousand years.
International status
Architecture
Also, alone in Europe until the 13th century Italian florin, the Empire continued to produce sound gold coinage, the solidus of Diocletian becoming the bezant prized throughout the Middle Ages.
Its city walls were much imitated (for example, see Caernarfon Castle) and its urban infrastructure was moreover a marvel throughout the Middle Ages, keeping alive the art, skill and technical expertise of the Roman Empire.
In the Ottoman period Islamic architecture and symbolism were used.
References
- Bury, J. B. (1958). History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian. Dover Publications.
- Crowley, Roger (2005). Constantinople: Their Last Great Siege, 1453. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-22185-1.
- Freely, John (1998). Istanbul: The Imperial City. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-024461-8.
- Freely, John; Ahmet S. Cakmak (2004). The Byzantine Monuments of Istanbul. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77257-0.
- Gibbon, Edward (2005). The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Phoenix Press. ISBN 978-0-7538-1881-7.
- Hanna-Riitta, Toivanen (2007). The Influence of Constantinople on Middle Byzantine Architecture (843–1204). A typological and morphological approach at the provincial level. Suomen kirkkohistoriallisen seuran toimituksia 202 (Publications of the Finnish Society of Church History No. 202). ISBN 978-952-5031-41-6.
- Harris, Jonathan (2007). Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium. Hambledon Continuum. ISBN 978-1-84725-179-4.
- Harris, Jonathan (2003). Byzantium and the Crusades. Hambledon and London. ISBN 978-1-85285-501-7.
- Herrin, Judith (2008). Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13151-1.
- Janin, Raymond (1964). Constantinople Byzantine (in French) (2 ed.). Paris: Institut Français d'Etudes Byzantines.
- Mamboury, Ernest (1953). The Tourists' Istanbul. Istanbul: Çituri Biraderler Basımevi.
- Mansel, Philip (1998). Constantinople: City of the World's Desire, 1453–1924. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-18708-8.
- Müller-Wiener, Wolfgang (1977). Bildlexikon zur Topographie Istanbuls: Byzantion, Konstantinupolis, Istanbul bis zum Beginn d. 17 Jh (in German). Tübingen: Wasmuth. ISBN 978-3-8030-1022-3.
- Phillips, Jonathan (2005). The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople. Pimlico. ISBN 978-1-84413-080-1.
- Runciman, Steven (1990). The Fall of Constantinople, 1453. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-84413-080-1.
- Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2630-6.
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Catechism of the Catholic Church
Part Two: The Celebration of the Christian Mystery,
Section Two: The Seven Sacraments of the Church
Article 3:6 Sacrament of the Eucharist
SECTION TWO
THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH
Article 3
THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST
VI. The Paschal Banquet
1382
The Mass is at the same time, and inseparably, the sacrificial memorial in
which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated and the sacred banquet of
communion with the Lord's body and blood. But the celebration of the Eucharistic
sacrifice is wholly directed toward the intimate union of the faithful with
Christ through communion. To receive communion is to receive Christ himself who
has offered himself for us.
1383
The altar, around which the Church is gathered in the celebration of the
Eucharist, represents the two aspects of the same mystery: the altar of the
sacrifice and the table of the Lord. This is all the more so since the
Christian altar is the symbol of Christ himself, present in the midst of the assembly
of his faithful, both as the victim offered for our reconciliation and as food
from heaven who is giving himself to us. "For what is the altar of Christ
if not the image of the Body of Christ?"St. Ambrose, De Sacr. 5, 2, 7: PL 16, 447C asks St. Ambrose. He
says elsewhere, "The altar represents the body [of Christ] and the Body of
Christ is on the altar."St. Ambrose, De
Sacr. 4, 2, 7: PL 16, 437D The liturgy expresses this unity of
sacrifice and communion in many prayers. Thus the Roman Church prays in its
anaphora:
We entreat you, almighty God,
that by the hands of your holy
Angel
this offering may be borne to
your altar in heaven
in the sight of your divine
majesty,
so that as we receive in
communion at this altar
the most holy Body and Blood
of your Son,
we may be filled with every
heavenly blessing and grace.
"Take
this and eat it, all of you": communion Roman Missal, EP I (Roman Canon) 96: Supplices te rogamus,
omnipotens Deus: iube haec perferri per manus sancti Angeli tui in sublime
altare tuum, in conspectu divinae maiestatis tuae: ut, quotquot ex hac
altaris participatione sacrosanctum Filii Corpus et Sanguinem sumpserimus,
omni benedictione caelesti et gratia repleamur.
1384
The Lord addresses an invitation to us, urging us to receive him in the
sacrament of the Eucharist: "Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh
of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in
you."Jn 6:53
1385
To respond to this invitation we must prepare ourselves for so great and so
holy a moment. St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience: "Whoever,
therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner
will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine
himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and
drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon
himself."1 Cor 11:27-29 Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the
sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion.
1386
Before so great a sacrament, the faithful can only echo humbly and with ardent
faith the words of the Centurion: "Domine, non sum dignus ut intres sub
tectum meum, sed tantum dic verbo, et sanabitur anima mea" ("Lord, I
am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my
soul will be healed.").Roman Missal, response to the invitation to communion; cf. ⇒ Mt 8:8 and in the Divine Liturgy of St. John
Chrysostom the faithful pray in the same spirit:
O Son of God, bring me into
communion today with your mystical supper. I shall not tell your enemies the
secret, nor kiss you with Judas' kiss. But like the good thief I cry,
"Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
1387
To prepare for worthy reception of this sacrament, the faithful should observe
the fast required in their Church.CIC, can. 919 Bodily demeanor (gestures,
clothing) ought to convey the respect, solemnity, and joy of this moment when
Christ becomes our guest.
1388
It is in keeping with the very meaning of the Eucharist that the faithful, if
they have the required dispositions, receive communion each time they
participate in the Mass.CIC,
can. 917; AAS 76 (1984) 746-747 As the Second Vatican Council says:
"That more perfect form of participation in the Mass whereby the faithful,
after the priest's communion, receive the Lord's Body from the same sacrifice,
is warmly recommended."SC 55
1389
The Church obliges the faithful "to take part in the Divine Liturgy on
Sundays and feast days" and, prepared by the sacrament of Reconciliation,
to receive the Eucharist at least once a year, if possible during the Easter
season.OE 15; ⇒ CIC, can. 920 But the Church strongly encourages the faithful to receive
the holy Eucharist on Sundays and feast days, or more often still, even daily.
1390
Since Christ is sacramentally present under each of the species, communion
under the species of bread alone makes it possible to receive all the fruit of
Eucharistic grace. For pastoral reasons this manner of receiving communion has
been legitimately established as the most common form in the Latin rite. But
"the sign of communion is more complete when given under both kinds, since
in that form the sign of the Eucharistic meal appears more
clearly."GIRM 240 This is the usual form of receiving communion in the
Eastern rites.
The fruits
of Holy Communion
1391
Holy Communion augments our union with Christ. the principal fruit of receiving
the Eucharist in Holy Communion is an intimate union with Christ Jesus. Indeed,
the Lord said: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and
I in him."Jn 6:56 Life in Christ has its foundation in the Eucharistic
banquet: "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father,
so he who eats me will live because of me."Jn 6:57
On the feasts of the Lord,
when the faithful receive the Body of the Son, they proclaim to one another the
Good News that the first fruits of life have been given, as when the angel said
to Mary Magdalene, "Christ is risen!" Now too are life and
resurrection conferred on whoever receives Christ.Fanqith,
Syriac Office of Antioch, Vol. 1, Commun., 237 a-b
1392
What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion wonderfully
achieves in our spiritual life. Communion with the flesh of the risen Christ, a
flesh "given life and giving life through the Holy
Spirit,"PO 5 preserves, increases, and renews the life of grace received
at Baptism. This growth in Christian life needs the nourishment of Eucharistic
Communion, the bread for our pilgrimage until the moment of death, when it will
be given to us as viaticum.
1393
Holy Communion separates us from sin. the body of Christ we receive in Holy
Communion is "given up for us," and the blood we drink "shed for
the many for the forgiveness of sins." For this reason the Eucharist
cannot unite us to Christ without at the same time cleansing us from past sins
and preserving us from future sins:
For as often as we eat this
bread and drink the cup, we proclaim the death of the Lord. If we proclaim the
Lord's death, we proclaim the forgiveness of sins. If, as often as his blood is
poured out, it is poured for the forgiveness of sins, I should always receive
it, so that it may always forgive my sins. Because I always sin, I should
always have a remedy.St. Ambrose, De Sacr. 4, 6, 28: PL 16, 446; cf. ⇒ 1 Cor
11:26
1394
As bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens our
charity, which tends to be weakened in daily life; and this living charity
wipes away venial sins.Council of Trent (1551): DS 1638 By giving himself to us Christ revives our
love and enables us to break our disordered attachments to creatures and root
ourselves in him:
Since Christ died for us out
of love, when we celebrate the memorial of his death at the moment of sacrifice
we ask that love may be granted to us by the coming of the Holy Spirit. We
humbly pray that in the strength of this love by which Christ willed to die for
us, we, by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, may be able to consider the
world as crucified for us, and to be ourselves as crucified to the world....
Having received the gift of love, let us die to sin and live for God.St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, Contra Fab. 28, 16-19: CCL 19A, 813-814
1395
By the same charity that it enkindles in us, the Eucharist preserves us from
future mortal sins. the more we share the life of Christ and progress in his
friendship, the more difficult it is to break away from him by mortal sin. the
Eucharist is not ordered to the forgiveness of mortal sins - that is proper to
the sacrament of Reconciliation. the Eucharist is properly the sacrament of
those who are in full communion with the Church.
1396
The unity of the Mystical Body: the Eucharist makes the Church. Those who
receive the Eucharist are united more closely to Christ. Through it Christ
unites them to all the faithful in one body - the Church. Communion renews,
strengthens, and deepens this incorporation into the Church, already achieved
by Baptism. In Baptism we have been called to form but one body.1 Cor 12:13 The
Eucharist fulfills this call: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it
not a participation in the blood of Christ? the bread which we break, is it not
a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are
many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread:"1 Cor 10:16-17
If you are the body and
members of Christ, then it is your sacrament that is placed on the table of the
Lord; it is your sacrament that you receive. To that which you are you respond
"Amen" ("yes, it is true!") and by responding to it you
assent to it. For you hear the words, "the Body of Christ" and
respond "Amen." Be then a member of the Body of Christ that your Amen
may be true.St. Augustine, Sermo 272: PL 38, 1247
1397
The Eucharist commits us to the poor. To receive in truth the Body and Blood of
Christ given up for us, we must recognize Christ in the poorest, his brethren:
You have tasted the Blood of
the Lord, yet you do not recognize your brother,.... You dishonor this table
when you do not judge worthy of sharing your food someone judged worthy to take
part in this meal.... God freed you from all your sins and invited you here,
but you have not become more merciful.St. John Chrysostom, Hom. in 1 Cor. 27, 4: PG 61, 229-230; cf. ⇒ Mt
25:40
1398
The Eucharist and the unity of Christians. Before the greatness of this mystery
St. Augustine exclaims, "O sacrament of devotion! O sign of unity! O bond
of charity!"St. Augustine,
In Jo. ev. 26, 13: PL 35, 1613; cf. SC 47 The more painful the experience of the divisions
in the Church which break the common participation in the table of the Lord,
the more urgent are our prayers to the Lord that the time of complete unity
among all who believe in him may return.
1399
The
Eastern churches that are not in full communion with the Catholic Church
celebrate the Eucharist with great love. "These Churches, although
separated from us, yet possess true sacraments, above all - by apostolic
succession - the priesthood and the Eucharist, whereby they are still joined to
us in closest intimacy." A certain communion in sacris, and so in the
Eucharist, "given suitable circumstances and the approval of Church
authority, is not merely possible but is encouraged."UR 15 # 2; cf. ⇒ CIC, can. 844 # 3
1400
Ecclesial
communities derived from the Reformation and separated from the Catholic
Church, "have not preserved the proper reality of the Eucharistic mystery
in its fullness, especially because of the absence of the sacrament of Holy
Orders."UR 22 # 3 It is for this reason that Eucharistic intercommunion
with these communities is not possible for the Catholic Church. However these
ecclesial communities, "when they commemorate the Lord's death and
resurrection in the Holy Supper . . . profess that it signifies life in communion
with Christ and await his coming in glory."UR 22 # 3
1401
When,
in the Ordinary's judgment, a grave necessity arises, Catholic ministers may
give the sacraments of Eucharist, Penance, and Anointing of the Sick to other
Christians not in full communion with the Catholic Church, who ask for them of
their own will, provided they give evidence of holding the Catholic faith
regarding these sacraments and possess the required dispositions.CIC, can. 844 # 4
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