Pavle of Serbia
550 years since the fall of Constantinople

Published by the Serbian Orthodox Church

May 29,  1453 - 2003

ELGRADE, May 29, 2003 - Excerpts from the letter of His Holiness Patriarch of Serbia Pavle to His Beatitude Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and all Greece  in which he extended greetings to the participants of a solemn convocation in Athens marking the 550th Anniversary of the fall of Constantinople.

          550 years have passed since the Fall of Constantinople, the See of the Eastern Roman Empire. Constantinople is perhaps the only city in the world for which it suffices to say - The City, and it is known of which one speaks. That truth has been retained even today in the Turkish official name for Constantinople as "Istanbul" (Eis-ten-polin, literally "To The City"). To go to Constantinople meant going to The City, which for over 1,000 years played an exceptional role in the historical events of Europe and Asia, and the entire Christian Oikoumene. Constantinople was the First City and the world capital, which from its very inception was a Christian city.

        THAT is the city in which "Symphonia" (Symphony) was conceived as the unique manifestation of Church and state relations, formulated on the basis of the Old Testament concept of the kingdom and the priesthood, the Royal and Priestly offices, as well as the New Testament principle: "To Caesar Caesar's, and to God God's". In harmony with that principle and according to the example of the Roman Empire, the Balkan and Slavic nations were formulated and their ethos, as well as the life of the new Local Orthodox Churches through the ages. As the See of the Constantinopolitan Archbishopric, of the Archbishop who was second in honor in the Church, and - following the schism of the Western Church - the first, Constantinople was the city of the Ecumenical Councils, which continue even until today to mold Christian understanding and Theological thought.

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Part of Constantinoupolis on the web section of Elpenor's history resources. Cf. The Orthodox Church * Mouravieff : Introduction of Christianity into Russia (988-1015) * Dostoyevsky : Constantinople can not but belong to Russia! * Constantelos : Greek Orthodoxy - From Apostolic Times to the Present Day

Greek Word Library

Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/pavle-constantinople.asp