The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1908-12-10
Kenosha Boy Now Teacher in East
ern College Tells of Visit to
Famous Christian Temple
Now Held by Pagans
(By Prof. Louis Limper)


of st. Sophie? And yet this temple to
Divine Wisdom is in many ways more
remarkable than any Of the cathedrals
Of southern or western Europe. In
size, to be sure, st. Sophie is far sur
passed by ST. Peter and Cologne, but
these are structures Of modern times
compared with St. Sophie. The latter
is almost one thousand years older than
St. Peter and it antedates the begin
ming Of Cologne by eight hundred
years, though while it has taken FIVE
hundred years to complete Cologne,
St. Sophie was completed in less
than six years, and with only a few
repairs stands today as it did sixty
years after the fall Of Rome
To people who have visited the
cathedrals mentioned before the dimen-
sions of st. Sophie will not appeal;
they may even seem insignificant. But
yet it is a well known fact that when
those very people visit st. Sophie, they
are overwhelmed by it's dimensions and
grandeur and they cannot account for
the discrepancy in figures. The reason
for this is probably the perfect proper
tions of ST. Sophie Well has it neen
dedicated to Divine Wisdom" and a
fitting offering it is
in plan St. Sophie closely approaches
an exact square, being 235 feet by $50
feet, exclusive Of the narthex and apse.
The exterior possesses little beauty,
probably it had been left bare pur-
posely to make the beauty of the interi-
or more pronounced The internal ar
rangements are so perfect from a me-
chanical and an artistic point of view
that it may well be considered the
most beautiful church that has yet been
built by Christian people. The great
dome 107 feet across, rises to a height
of 179 feet above the floor. The dome
lis supported by four large arches which
.abut on masses of masonry.
1t is common practice for the
foreign residents of Constantinople to
visit St, Sophie on the festival of E'The
Night of Power The festival occurs
near the end of Ramuson, the month in
which the loyal Mohamedan neither
eats nor drinks from sunrise to sunset.
Thursday Oct. %, being "FThe Night
Of Power a number of teachers of
Robert College, as we'll as many other
foreigners, visited st. Sophie. For the
price Of twenty cents we were admitted
to the gallery, a privilege not always
granted.
The view from the gallery was mag
nifcent. The gallery is about forty
feet above the floor and from it we
looked down upon fifty chandeliers of
various shapes and sizes, the smallest
Of which contained fifty small olive
oil lamps. 1t was impossible to see
the floor clearly because of these
thousands of intercepting lights, but
the turbans of the worshippers beneath
were visible The number of worship
pers present was estimated all the way
| from FIVE to ten thousand. I would
Judge it nearer the lower figure. They
stood in rows, elbow to elbow, each
row about five feet behind the other.
The rows did not run at right angles
to the side walls but somewhat dag
onally across, for st. Sophie having been
a Christian church was not built facing
Mecca as the Mohamedan Mosques are.
The usual responsive order Of prayer
was followed, one man singing out in
high tenor voice and the others re-
spending with Allah or Amen, The
volumn with which the Amens" were
responded was tremendous. 1t seemed
as though the marble pillars and the
vaulted ceiling shook from the noise.
The reverberations were like those of
thunder
Our visit had somewhat of the ro-
mantle about it from the fact that a
few days before several notices had
been seen about the city announcing in
Arabic, that general massacre of
Christians was to commence on that
evening. When the service closed there
was sudden tremendous tumult,
caused by the thousands of people be-
ginning to leave the building and by
scores of Mohamedan preachers who
yelled at the top Of their voices trying
to gather crowds to whom to preach.
Some Of the visitors in the gallery in
terpreted the tumult as the beginning
Of the massacre, and there was a rush
on the part of some for the exits.
Their fears are to be pardoned, for the
tumult was tremendous, and because
of the intercepting lights one could see
nothing but moving turbans on the
ground floor.
Gradually as the crowds became
thinner we could see what had caused
the confusion. The various preachers
having gathered groups about them
were reading the Koran or discoursing
/ - thor,