In 2009, a seraph set its eyes on the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Türkiye, for the first time in centuries.
Last month, I had the opportunity to tour the Hagia Sophia. I walked through the upper balcony and struggled to decide whether to focus on the beauty of the mosque below me or the old, faded mosaics on the walls behind me.
It was almost impossible to reconcile all the roles the building had played throughout history and faith.
The Hagia Sophia, or “holy wisdom,” has served many roles throughout its years. It currently functions as both a mosque and a museum, separated into the main floor and the upper balcony.
Constructed during the reign of the Byzantine Empire, it was originally a Greek Orthodox Church, which are often characterized by icons of saints and angels.
After the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque, all the mosaics and images were covered with plaster or removed due to the Islamic ban against representational images. These covered images included the four seraphim seen on the four pendentives of the dome.
These seraphim, angelic beings described in Isaiah 6:2, had their faces covered with eight-pointed golden stars to disguise the images. For centuries, the Hagia Sophia’s seraphim were hidden under the golden stars as the building was used as a mosque.
Fifteen years ago, one of the stars was officially removed from a seraph, revealing its face to the Hagia Sophia for the first time in centuries. Now, in the mosque, one seraph is preserved with its face visible for the museum’s purposes, while the remaining three seraphim are still covered by their golden stars.
When I toured the Hagia Sophia, I saw these seraphim as I explored the museum level of the building. Standing in the women’s quarters at the end of the building and looking out, the entire building unfolded in shades of deepest greens and golds.
Flying above the mosque were three winged stars and one seraph.
Several other mosaics are found throughout the upper level of the Hagia Sophia, where the mosque transitions into a museum. None of these images are visible from the mosque’s ground floor. Many are worn away to the point that it is almost impossible to differentiate old beauty from old stone.
Other images, such as the icon of the Virgin Mary at the head of the building, are covered by cloth, shielded to prevent citizens from seeing her when they come to the old mosque for prayer.
However, the cloth is draped several feet away from the image, covering it while also allowing museum visitors to view the mosaic from the side if they tilt their necks and lean backward.
There is one more critical piece from the Hagia Sophia’s days as a church that is still obscured.
The highest point in every Greek Orthodox Church is always decorated with an icon of Jesus so that no other saint or angel can be placed above him. The Hagia Sophia is no different, but its icon of Jesus is still covered by plaster and paint from when it was converted into a mosque.
Amidst all these ancient images and decorations, the seraph’s importance is due to its obvious visibility.
The seraph’s face, now seen from where its star used to sit, is visible to the whole building, both mosque and museum. Other old pieces of Christian faith and history are still covered in plaster or cloth or forced out of sight through distance.
But every visitor who steps foot inside the Hagia Sophia can see the seraph, its face visible as if it had just been painted.
All visitors, tourists and citizens, are joined together, no matter what background or beliefs they come from.
Johnna Ryan is a rising sophomore at Palm Beach Atlantic University. She is pursuing a major in English and a minor in Creative Writing, with plans to expand her graduate studies into Classics . She is an aspiring author and novelist, and a currently published poet. She is the Summer 2024 Ernest C. Hynds Jr. intern at Good Faith Media
