Nicaean Church of Hagia Sophia began functioning as a mosque

3/8/2012

Historic Church of St. Sophia in Nicaea (modern Iznik, Turkey), where in 787, held the Seventh Ecumenical Council, began to function as a mosque, to which has already been assigned aMufti. This is reported by “Romfea.”

Hagia Sophia in Nicaea was first converted into a mosque in 1331, after the conquest of Asia Minor in the Byzantine Empire, by the Ottoman Turks. It remained a mosque until the arrival of the troops in the region of the Greek army during the campaign that they made in Asia Minor after the First World War.

In 1922 the church burned down and for a long time was in ruins. Then it was restored, but until recently there was no mosque, no church, and was turned into a museum.

As previously reported, the Turkish government has recently decided to abolish the museum in the church of Hagia Sophia and give it to the Islamic community a a mosque. The beginning of the Islamic prayer meetings in this ancient Christian shrine coincides with the beginning of the period of fasting of Ramadan.

During the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor. Constantine the Great, in 325 AD, Nicaea was held in the First Ecumenical Council. The Council adopted the so-called Also at the Council was determined during the celebration of Pascha, common to all Christians.

The Seventh Ecumenical (or the Second Nicene) Council , which was condemned the iconoclastic heresy. Iznik remains the titular metropolitanate of Patriarchate of Constantinople and the nominal episcopate of the Roman Catholic Church (however, to this diocese since 1976, no one has been assigned).

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