As I write this, just a few streets away, Pope Leo is visiting the Sultanahmet or Blue Mosque in Istanbul/Constantinople.
The main purpose of his trip to Turkey was to gather with leaders of other Christian denominations to commemorate the Council of Nicaea, held 1,700 years ago in today’s Iznik. Back in 325, representatives of the newly legalized Christian faith could, for the first time, agree on organizational principles, adopt a shared creed—the Nicene Creed, still recited in every church today—and generally get the Church organized.
In hindsight, the main outcome of the Council of Nicaea was its stance in the Arian controversy that divided Christianity, affirming the divinity of Christ and including this in the Creed (“of one substance with the Father…”). It also fixed the date of Easter and issued decrees on twenty church organizational matters. But its greatest significance lay in demonstrating the unity of the Christian Church simply by existing: hundreds of bishops gathered from Córdoba to Persia to make binding decisions. That was precisely the goal of Emperor Constantine, who, having replaced previous cults with Christianity, expected it to support him as a solid, crack-free state church, just as the pagan Roman priesthood had.
Emperor Constantine and the participants of the council, holding the Nicene Creed in their hands
Many questions arise regarding the Council of Nicaea, and I plan to summarize them in a Christmas lecture and follow-up post. Here in Turkey, the first question is a topographical one: exactly where was the council held, and which church did the Pope and his colleagues visit?
The Hagia Sophia of Iznik still stands in the town center today—a Byzantine-era basilica with early Christian frescoes that was converted into a mosque centuries ago, which ensured its survival.
Sources suggest, however, that the council was held in a larger basilica outside the city walls, dedicated to the young local martyr Saint Neophytos. Today, there is no trace of this basilica in the town.
It was only a few years ago that archaeologists from Bursa’s Uludağ University discovered, via aerial surveys of Lake Iznik and the surrounding area, the faint outlines of ruins underwater—a large basilica. On-site exploration revealed that locals were aware of these ruins; children swim among them. But as often in Turkey, nobody really cared which shade of the pre-Islamic "age of darkness" they belonged to.
Excavations have clarified that this was indeed the Basilica of Saint Neophytos, which sank due to an 8th-century earthquake and was submerged by the lake’s waters. Even the skeleton of Saint Neophytos, tortured and beheaded at age sixteen, was found buried in the sanctuary.
Due to the drought in Anatolia, the lake has shrunk significantly these months, leaving the basilica ruins exposed. Pope Leo and other Christian leaders were able to see and even touch them on the 1,700th anniversary.
Reconstruction image of the basilica
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