A Prophecy Engraved on the Cover of St. Constantines Tomb (4th c.

All that is left of St. Constantines Tomb, is the above fragment of royal purple colored stone, labeled as such in the local archeological museum in Istanbul.

St. Constantine the Great died in 337 AD and was laid to rest in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. The Church of the Holy Apostles was also known as the Imperial Polyndreion (imperial cemetery). The first structure dates to the 4th century, though future emperors would add to and improve on the space. It was second in size and importance only to the Hagia Sophia among the great churches of the capital. When Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, the Holy Apostles briefly became the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church. Three years later the edifice, which was in a dilapidated state, was abandoned by the Patriarch, and in 1461 it was demolished by the Ottomans to make way for the Fatih Mosque. The original church of the Holy Apostles was dedicated in about 330 by Constantine the Great, the founder of Constantinople, the new capital of the Roman Empire. The church was unfinished when Constantine died in 337, and it was brought to completion by his son and successor Constantius II, who buried his father's remains there. After his departure from this life, his sacred relics were buried with imperial honours in the narthex of the church of the Holy Apostles, where they gave off a powerful aroma and myrrh and performed many miracles. The basilica was looted during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The historian Nicetas Choniates records that the Crusaders plundered the imperial tombs and robbed them of gold and gems. Not even Justinian's tomb was spared. The tomb of Emperor Heraclius was opened and his golden crown was stolen along with the late Emperor's hairs still attached on it. Some of these treasures were taken to Venice, where they can still be seen in St Mark's Basilica, while the body of St. Gregory was brought to Rome. In 1453 Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks. The cathedral church of the Holy Wisdom was seized and turned into a mosque, and the Sultan Mehmed II assigned to the Greek Patriarch Gennadius Scholarius the church of the Holy Apostles, which thus became the new administrative centre of the Greek Orthodox Church. But the Church was in a dilapidated state, and the area around the church was inappropriate and soon settled by Turks. After the killing of a Turk by a Greek, the Turkish dwellers became hostile to the Christians, so that in 1456 Gennadius therefore decided to move the Patriarchate to the Church of St Mary Pammakaristos in the aramba neighbourhood.

After the demolition of the ramshackle church in 1462, from 1463 to 1470 the Sultan let build on the 11 hectares wide freed site on the top of the hill a mosque complex of comparable magnificence. The result was the Fatih Cami (English: Mosque of the Conqueror), which - although rebuilt after its destruction because of the earthquake of 1766 - still occupies the site and houses Mehmed's tomb. The church's mausoleums were the resting place for most Eastern Roman emperors and members of their families for seven centuries, beginning with Constantine I (d. 337) and ending with Constantine VIII (d. 1028). History of the Prophecy This prophecy appears frequently in Orthodox publications concerning the Apocalypse, the Antichrist and the Second Coming of Christ. There is usually a historical footnote for this prophecy: The aforementioned prophecy, according to historic testimonies, was written by wise and holy men on the cover of St. Constantines tomb when his son transferred his relics from Nicomedia to Constantinople and interred them in the Church of the Holy Apostles. This prophecy was cryptic because in the original Greek text, about half the letters were in each word were missing, so as to conceal the meaning until the pre-determined time of deciphering [according to some publications, this prophecy was made up of only consonants and all the vowels were missing]. It wasnt until the year 1440 that the prophecy was deciphered by George Scholarius (the future Patriarch Gennadius of Constantinople), which was 13 years before the Turks captured Constantinople. Over 1,100 years had passed between the time of St. Constantines death and the year the prophecy was translated. The prophecy was translated when it was useful for the Christians and not beforehand. And even though many wise and holy men had lived in Constantinople before the time of Gennadius, only he was able to decipher it [some publications give a list of wise and learned Saints who lived in Constantinople yet could not decipher this prophecy; i.e. St. Photius the Great, etc. though these Saints did not mention this prophecy in any of their writings]. Gennadios left n detailed account of the Turkish conquest of his city and the death of its Emperor Constantine. But he compiled a series of chronological observations n the ways in which the hand of providence could be seen to have influenced the dreadful events of his lifetime. He noted that the Christian Empire of the Romans had originated with the Emperor Constantine and his mother Helena and had come t its end when another Constantine, son of Helena, was Emperor and was killed in the conquest of his city. Between the first and the last Constantine there had been n Emperor of the same name whose mother was a Helena. He observed that the first Patriarch of Constantinople under Constantine was Metrophanes and the last Patriarch was also called Metrophanes, who died in 1443; for his successor, the Patriarch Gregory , whom Gennadios never recognised, went off to Rome and died there. There was n other Patriarch with the name of Metrophanes between the first and last. Gennadios also noted that the city of Constantinople had been founded n 11 May (330), finished n another 3 ay and captured n 29 ay (1453), so that all the events of its birth and death occurred in the month of ay. Finally, he recorded the prophecy that when an Emperor and a Patriarch whose names began with the letters Jo- reigned at the same time, then the end of the Empire and of the church would be at hand. So it had come about. For the men who brought ruin n the church in Italy (at the Council of Florence) were Joannes the Emperor and Joseph the Patriarch. Gennadios was an accomplished scholar and retained a faith in prophecies. It had long been foretold that the world would end with the Second Coming of Christ which, n Byzantine calculation, was scheduled to happen in the 7000th year after the creation of the

world (in 5509-08 BC), or in AD 1492. He took some comfort therefore from the belief that, in 1453, there was not long to go. Gennadios jotted down his chronological notes some time after the death of the Patriarch Gregory in 1459. He was thus not the first to remark n the coincidence of names between the first and the last Constantine and Helena. The Venetian surgeon, Nicolo Barbaro, in his Diary of the siege of Constantinople, notes that God decided that the city should fall when it did in order that the ancient prophecies should be fulfilled, one of which was that Constantinople should be lost to the Christians during the reign of an Emperor called Constantine son of Helena. Cardinal Isidore, who managed to escape from the ruins f the city disguised as a beggar, reported it as a fact rather than a prophecy in a letter which he wrote to Pope Nicholas V n 6 July 1453: "Just as the city was founded by Constantine, son of Helena, so it is nw tragically lost by another Constantine, son of Helena." Kritoboulos of Imbros, one of the principal historians of the event, wondered at the coincidence of names in the city's long history: "For Constantine, the fortunate Emperor, son of Helena, built it and raised it to the heights of happiness and prosperity; while under the unfortunate Emperor Constantine, son of Helena, it has been captured and reduced to the depths of servitude and misfortune." The coincidence was remarked upn by several of the writers of the so-called Short Chronicles and by the author of at least one of many laments n the fall of Constantinople. The Prophecy Text as found in Orthodox Publications In the first of the Indiction, the kingdom of Ishmael called Mohammed is going to defeat the family of Paleologos and will possess the City of the Seven Hills [i.e. Constantinople]. He will reign in the interior, he will suppress many nations, and he will desolate the islands as far back as the Black Sea. He will conquer the peoples neighbouring the Istrus River [i.e. the Danube River] in the eighth of the Indiction. He will suppress the Peloponessos in the ninth of the Indiction. He is going to make a campaign into the areas of the north in the tenth of the Indiction he will defeat the Dalmatians and will return again after some time to make a great war on the Dalmatians, where he will be crushed partially; and the multitudes and nations [lit. Tribes], accompanied by the Western nations by land and sea, will make war and defeat Ishmael whose descendent will reign less and minor for a short time. And the Blond race, along with its agents, will defeat the whole of Ishmael and will conquer the City of the Seven Hills with her privileges; then they will provoke a savage civil war until the fifth hour; and a voice will shout thrice: Stand fast, stand fast, and with fear earnestly hasten to the area on the right, and find there a brave, wondrous, and robust man; you shall have this one as your ruler because he is my beloved. So take him with you and fulfill my resolution.