Saint Mary in the mosaics of Chora (Kariye)

Marian Invocation of Istanbul (Constantinople (historical))
Popular devotion (not officially recognized by the Church)

The former Byzantine Church of St. Saviour in Chora (Kariye), next to the Theodosian Walls in Istanbul, preserves an exceptional collection of mosaics and frescoes from the Paleolithic period (14th century). Today the building functions as a museum/mosque and is not a permanent Christian place of worship, so it is not a sanctuary dedicated to a specific saint.

Main data

Origin and history

The former Byzantine Church of St. Saviour in Chora (Kariye), next to the Theodosian Walls in Istanbul, preserves an exceptional collection of mosaics and frescoes from the Paleolithic period (14th century). Today the building functions as a museum/mosque and is not a permanent Christian place of worship, so it is not a sanctuary dedicated to a specific saint.

The image and the sanctuary

Among its masterpieces are scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary: the Nativity, her Presentation in the Temple, and the Annunciation, along with a comprehensive Christological cycle. It is not a Marian shrine in the liturgical sense, but rather a first-rate Marian iconographic complex.

Sponsorship and coronation

There is no record of it. There is no current liturgical veneration nor a specific Marian title.

Party and devotion

It followed the Byzantine calendar; today there is no current liturgical feast. Many Christian pilgrims visit it as a kind of Marian "artistic pilgrimage," reading in its mosaics a Gospel of the childhood of Mary and Jesus, within the context of contemporary piety and without official worship.

Link to the Rosary

The scenes of the Annunciation and the Nativity of Mary that decorate Chora coincide with the joyful mysteries of the Rosary; whoever contemplates these mosaics visually relives a good part of the events that the Rosary meditates on.