About Precious Stones and the Old Constantinople Cathedral

One of the most magnificent shrines ever known was the old Constantinople Cathedral (now the Imperial Mosque St. Sophia), which was dedicated to the Eternal Wisdom, i.e., to the Second Divine Person, associated, even by Solomon, with Jehovah in the creation of the world. This temple was erected in A.D. 325, and, after having been ravaged twice by fire, was restored by the Emperor Justinian in 568, after the plan, says tradition, of an angel who came to that monarch in a dream.

The angel is stated to have appeared a second time as a eunuch, in a brilliant white dress, on a Saturday, to a boy who was guarding the tools of the masons, and ordered him to bring the workmen immediately, in order to hasten the building. As the boy refused, the gleaming eunuch swore by the Wisdom, i.e., by the Word of God, that he would not depart until the boy returned, and that he, in the meantime, would watch over the building. When the boy was led before the emperor, and could not find the eunuch who had appeared to him, the emperor perceived that it had been an angel; and in order that he might for ever keep his word as guardian of the temple, he sent away the boy, laden with presents, to pass the rest of his life in the Cyclades, and resolved, according to the word of the angel, to dedicate the church to the Word of God, and Divine Wisdom. Again the angel appeared, a third time, as a eunuch, in a brilliant white garb, when the building was finished as far as the cupola, but when there was not sufficient money to finish it, he led the mules of the treasury into a subterranean vault, and laded them with eighty hundredweight of gold, which they brought to the emperor, who immediately recognized the wonderful hand of the angel in this unexpected caravan of gold. Thus did an angel give the plan, the name, and the funds for the construction of this wonder of the Middle Ages.

Nor did the angel end here, for a dispute arising between the emperor and the architect, whether the light should fall through one or two open arched windows, the angelic visitor appeared to the emperor, clad in imperial purple and red shoes, and instructed him that the light should fall upon the altar through three windows, in honour of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The altar was to be more costly than gold, and consequently it was composed of every species of precious materials, matted together with gold and silver, with crusted pearls and jewels, and its cavity, which was called the sea, was then set with the most costly precious stones.