Monastery of Stoudios

The monastery of Stoudios was founded in 453 in the southwest of Constantinople (Mango, Cyril. ‘The Date of the Studius Basilica at Istanbul’. Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 4, no. 1, 1 January 1978: 115–22), not far from the Marmara Sea It is considered one of the first examples of the religious architecture of Eastern Roman Empire and its main church is accepted as the oldest remaining religious building in Istanbul. The monks that inhabited it were referred to as Stoudites (or Studites), and they were well known by their laws and customs that many important monasteries toke as model. The Stoudites were, in fact, repeatedly driven from the city for their strict orthodox beliefs during the various religious controversies. As regards the intellectual life of the monastery in other directions, it is especially celebrated for its famous school of calligraphy which was established by Theodore the Studite, the abbot to whom the monastery owes most of its fame. In the eighth and eleventh centuries, the monastery was the centre of Byzantine religious poetry; a number of the hymns are still used in the Orthodox Church. Three of the Stoudite monks rose to become the ecumenical patriarchs, and after the tenth century, while Stoudios served as a place of both exile and sanctuary during the imperial conflicts for notable historical figures (Giritlioğlu, Dilara Burcu. ‘An Urban Node in the Ritual Landscape of Byzantine Constantinople: The Church of St John the Baptist of the Stoudios Monastery’. Master Thesis, Middle East Technical University, 2019: 68).

Stoudios Monastery was built at the south-western part of Constantinople (today Istanbul) near the Golden Gate. It is one of the oldest churches in Constantinople/Istanbul still standing. It was founded in the mid 5th century by the patrician Flavius Studius and was dedicated to St. John the Baptist (the Forerunner). By the end of the 13th century, it was restored and in the 14th century it continued to one of the most prominent monastic communities in the Byzantine capital. During the time of Theodore of Stoudios (759-826) and in the 9th century, the monastery was the intellectual center of the Byzantine capital where many important manuscripts were transcribed.

The monastery was plundered by the Crusades in 1294 – when it was turned into a pasture in the years from 1204 to 1293 – and it was, furthermore, damaged by the severe earthquakes in 542, 1296 and 1509. Stoudios was converted into a mosque (Imrahor Ilyas Bey Cami) by Bayezid II in the early 15th century and reconstructed after the 1784 fire and 18-19th century earthquakes. During the Ottoman era it was converted into a mosque and underwent extensive changes.  An earthquake in 1894 destroyed the monastery. In 1907-1909, the Russian Archaeological Institute in Constantinople excavated the monastery partially and revealed the opus sectile pavement, the crypt under the apse and burials in the south aisle.

The remaining part used as a mosque was completely abandoned after the fire in 1920 (Kucukdogan, Bilge, Joseph Kubin, and Ali Ihsan Unay. ‘Seismic Assessment of Monastery of Stoudios (Imrahor Mosque) in Istanbul’. Advanced Materials Research 133–134, 2010: 722-3).

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