Seraglio, Hagia Sophia Mosque, meeting with Sultan Mahmud II and Seraskir Khozrev

On Sunday I went to mass at the Patriarchal Cathedral. This is not a very large church, in the name of St. George (Agios Glorgyus). There is nothing particularly exciting about it. In the iconostasis there are two images of the Most Holy Theotokos, from the mosaic; There are also the chairs of Toann Chrysostom, lined with mother-of-pearl, and the pillar to which the Jews tied Jesus Christ during his suffering. When I entered, mass had already begun. We read the Gospel. The Patriarch sat on a throne near the right choir. Pfli in the nose is pretty bad. At the end of the liturgy, the Patraarch called me and gave me prosphora, and when. The archerei came out with a cross, he took it, and gave me to venerate the archerei; then he blessed me and invited me to his chambers. There I found the Patriarch already sitting on the sofa. He was surrounded by spiritual persons, of whom about six Archerei sat with him on the sofa; two Proto-Lacons stood at the door, and, it seemed to me, served as masters of ceremonies: they met and escorted those entering the Patrarch. When I entered, the Patraarch stood up. I approached with blessing and kissed his hand; He greeted me very kindly and asked: How long have I been to Constantinople? Having learned that I was with the Sultan, he told me that I was luckier than many, because no one was allowed into the palace where E.V. is now located. The Patriarch assumed an important posture. He is silent and extremely careful in conversations, especially with Russians and in front of strangers. This should not be surprising: he is always surrounded by foreigners, and, unfortunately, he cannot win over even his own, many of whom, perhaps, are secretly seeking his revenge, and others want to curry favor with the Court with some kind of denunciation. His position is completely political and political. We were served pipes, then coffee, according to Turkish custom. The conversation was rather dry, and I, Stay with the Patraarch for half an hour, taking his leave. At his farewell, he blessed me with a cross containing in it a piece of the tree of the Savior’s cross. K1evsky, and tell them that he always remembers them in his prayers.