Over the recent Corpus Christi weekend, I had an opportunity to accompany a buddy of mine on a whirlwind, three- and-a-half-day trip to Istanbul, Turkey, where the wonderful beauty, charm, culture, and friendly, pious people that make up this ancient city, famously once known and established by Roman emperor Constantine the Great as Constantinople, left a lasting impression on me — the over 900 photos and six videos in my phone from Istanbul lay claim to this. My awe of this ancient city was tempered at times, however, by my inability to come upon a church, in what was once the capital of the Christian eastern Roman Empire.

For Corpus Christi Sunday Mass, I was told of a Catholic church that would require some travel by metro but opted instead to celebrate Mass on my own in my hotel room, which happened to be within a few-minute walk of the magnificent Hagia Sophia, where I would head later that day. Now a breathtaking mosque, the Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine architectural masterpiece, was historically built by the Roman emperor Justinian in the 6th century as the Christian patriarchal cathedral of Constantinople.

Visiting the Hagia Sofia that Sunday meant that I would be entering a once-great shrine of Christendom, on the Sunday the Church devotes special attention to the Eucharistic Body and Blood of Christ, and where the Eucharist is no longer celebrated or housed. My amazement was met with a good deal of sadness as I entered and took in the 1,500-year-old edifice and saw the scant reminders of its Christian roots. Among the few lasting images of its Christian heritage is the glorious depiction of Justinian and Empress Theodora presenting gifts to the Blessed Mother and the Christ Child, within the ceiling mosaic upon entering the vestibule.

Steps into the mosque, eyes gravitate to some strategically-placed windows, where I imagine that a tabernacle must have been, and where all of the liturgical action was likely directed — where the Eucharist would have been celebrated. On a nearby street corner, within walk- ing distance of the Hagia Sofia, stands a pillar which Constantine had brought over from Rome, upon which a Cross no longer stands, as it once did. Seeing this, too, brought mixed emotions.