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It was this church which Constantine built between 326 and 330 CE, on the
site of an earlier temple to Aphrodite, no less, in which the Mass was held
dedicating and consecrating his new city of Constantinople (named, incidentally
- New Rome, officially but rarely, if ever called that) to the Glory of God.
Until the building of the Hagia Sophia during the reign of Justinian, two
hundred years later, this church served as the main patriarchal church of the
city.
The second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople was held here in 381.
During the reign of Justinian - who despite his adherence to, and support of,
Christianity, also had not a few faults - the Nika riots broke out between the
Blues and the Greens and he had the Janissaries put the riots down with a
ferocious blood-letting massacre in the Hippodrome. Had it not been for his
fearless and somewhat domineering and ambitious wife, Theodora, he may well have
decided that discretion was the better part of valour, resigned or even worse -
escaped ignominiously. (For an absolutely scintillating and hilarious commentary
on the character and personality of Theodora, you can do no better than read
Byzantium, Vol I. by John Julius Norwich). Nevertheless, for all her
unproven, lurid history, Theodora it was who saved the day; she would have none
of her husband's vacillating and insisting on him remaining and facing the mob
down - which, in the end he did. However, before this the mob had managed to
destroy much of Constantinople including the Hagia Sophia and - the Hagia
Eirene. It was rebuilt and again destroyed by earthquake in 740 (in 748/9 there
was a devastating earthquake in the Holy Land, one of the worst ever also doing
great damage), following which Constantine V rebuilt it.
