(The Conversation) — More than 160 Ukrainian cultural sites have been destroyed since Russia invaded the country in February 2022, according to UNESCO.
The Ukrainian claims that the number of broken sites is much higher. Russia denies those allegations.
Ukrainian officials accuse Russia of intentional cultural sites, some of which are churches, monasteries, houses of prayer, synagogues and mosques. Such would be a violation of foreign law.
As a teacher who has spent more than 30 years reading the Russian and Ukrainian faith and culture, I am deeply involved in the cultural destruction of this war, which has already claimed the lives of thousands of people and turned more than 12 million Ukrainians into refugees. .
One monument at risk is the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. Built in the eleventh century, the church is one of seven Ukrainian World Heritage sites identified by the United Nations. It represents the common Orthodox Christian religion shared by many Russians and Ukrainians.
St. Sophia Cathedral was built during the reign of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise, whose father, Volodymyr, also known as Vladimir, had followed Orthodox Christianity in 988.
According to a legend from the “Primary Chronicle” of the early twelfth century, Volodymyr chose orthodoxy for the good looks of his worship services. The emissaries he sent to Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, visited the famous Church of the Holy Wisdom. Built by Emperor Justinian in the sixth century, Hagia Sophia is committed to Divine Wisdom, which is personified through a woman in the biblical “Book of Proverbs. “Convinced by the favorable report of his envoys, Volodymyr to be baptized and converted his subjects.
After Volodymyr’s death, Yaroslav invited Byzantine architects and artists to build an impressive cathedral for Kyiv, such as Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Yaroslav, who had fought a civil war to succeed his father, intentionally imitated the Byzantine capital to identify its legitimacy. Its new cathedral, Hagia Sophia, even takes its call from the Imperial Church of Constantinople.
With thirteen domes and a central dome that rises 29 meters (about 95 feet) in the air, Hagia Sophia is an imposing design that served as a testament to the strength and piety of its ruler. Elaborate mosaics complement the sanctuary and dome. Portraits of Yaroslav and his circle of relatives feature prominently in the cathedral’s princely gallery, where the ruler attended services.
A mosaic of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, stands in the apse above the altar. Raising her hands in prayer, Mary is framed through a Greek inscription from Psalm 46: “God is in her midst; she will be moved.
The images and language were borrowed from Byzantium. Just as she thought she was a harsh divine protector of Constantinople, Mary now protects Kiev. The giant central dome is adorned with a mosaic of a symbol of Christ, known as “Christ Pantokrator, who looks at his fans from his throne.
Art historian Elena Boeck calls Hagia Sophia “the most ambitious Orthodox church built in the eleventh century. “
St. Sophia Cathedral was consecrated in 1049 and completed around 1062. As Kyiv’s strength and importance declined, the church suffered external attacks and internal abandonment.
In 1169, northern Prince Andrei Bogolubskii of Vladimir disposed of Kyiv, an event that the leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Epifaniy, faced with the existing Russian invasion. Mongol attacks in 1240, 1416 and 1482 further destroyed the cathedral.
Restoration works in the seventeenth century in Baroque style radically replaced the external appearance of the cathedral. The outer walls were plastered and whitewashed. The church was bombed in the Russian Civil War in 1918. Under Soviet rule, the Communists looted its treasure and secularized the building, which has been turned into a museum. In the 1940s, the back of the church suffered from German occupation.
The St. Sophia Cathedral is a monument of East Slavic cultural heritage shared by Russians and Ukrainians. His ordinary Byzantine mosaics and frescoes have survived nearly a millennium.
Today, in the middle of World War II, Ukraine is invaded by a foreign army that threatens this heritage. Although Russia has trusted the United Nations that its armed forces are taking “necessary precautions” to avoid damaging World Heritage sites such as Hagia Sophia, war is destructive and unpredictable. Whether St. Sophia Cathedral remained intact, this new invasion remains an open question.
(J. Eugene Clay, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies, Arizona State University. The perspectives expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service. )