Other names: Panagia of Vefa (Greek); Ayın Biri Kilisesi (Turkish, "First Day of the Month Church")
Authors: Karen Barkey (Bard), Anna Bigelow (Stanford), Published 2023
Site
The Church of Our Lady of Vefa, also known as the Panagia of Vefa or the Ayın Biri Kilisesi (First Day of the Month Church), is located in the Vefa neighborhood of Istanbul. It is considered a shared sacred site as it is visited by Christians and Muslims regularly. On the first day of every month an urban pilgrimage takes place at this site, bringing together members of various religions, ethnicities and social classes. Recently, with the influx of Muslims from the former Soviet territories, immigrants also visit this site. It is famous among Istanbul cosmopolitans crowds and has been written up in newspapers.
The Ayın Biri Kilisesi is in Istanbul, the seat of the former Ottoman Empire and now the largest city in Turkey. Istanbul has numerous shared sacred places which are the legacy of Ottoman times.
A map shows the regions of Turkey surrounding the Sea of Marmara. Pink dots throughout the region, with a heavy clustering near Istanbul, represent shared sacred sites. Within this cluster, a star marks the Church of Mary, Vefa.
The church is located in Istanbul’s Unkapanı district. This is near the Golden Horn, a major inlet of the Bosphorus and site of harbor activity in Istanbul.
The map zooms to the Golden Horn region of Turkey, which is an inlet that snakes into Turkey just southwest of the center of Istanbul. The Church of Mary is marked just south of the Golden Horn.
It is part of the Vefa neighborhood, which contains Byzantine and Ottoman-era architecture. The neighborhood was named after 15th-century Turkish poet Şeyh Ebul Vefa.
The map zooms to Vefa, the neighborhood in which the church lies. The borders are fluid but include several blocks.
Space
Located in the mixed commercial and residential neighborhood of Vefa near the Unkapanı Bridge and the Aqueduct of Valens, the Church of Mary is hidden behind a wall with a courtyard. The Church is always open on the first days of the month and typically on one or two other days every week. The upper level is made up of two rooms, one (with the nave) is larger, and the side chapel contains two stairwells to the lower level with the holy spring. There are stacidia (seats with high arms to support standing during the liturgy) around the edges of both upper spaces, and two on the lower level near the holy spring (Greek: Aghiasma). Icons (both painted and embossed metal) of Mary, Jesus, St. George, and other Biblical figures hang on all the walls, some behind locked cases. There is an image of Mary painted on the wall of the nave. This church does not have an iconostasis.
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Along a narrow, stone brick road is the walled gate of the church. The wall is part stone and part painted red, with metal fence posts atop it. Vendors stand at tables outside the wall with objects for sale set atop them.
The church courtyard includes a stone slab ground, several flower beds, green trees, and a bench.
Inside the church, several chandeliers cast light onto an icon of Mary painted on the wall. In one corner the priest blesses a visitor, and in the foreground a visitor places a lit candle into a stand already holding many burning candles.
A visitor stands in prayer before an altar beneath the painted image of Mary.
A staircase leads below the main room with the chandeliers, candles, altar, and painted image of Mary.
A single chandelier illuminates icons on two walls, each locked in a case with a wooden frame and clear front.
Beneath a short, arched ceiling is a channel in the ground. Several pipes emerge from the wall above it.
History
Byzantine period (330-1453)
In Byzantine times, the site was known as the Sphorakia, due to a legend that it was constructed over the ruins of the 5th century church of Sphorakios the Patrician. Another account asserts that this church at Vefa was the burial site of Constantine XI Palaiologos (1405-53) and that it was destroyed around the time of the Ottoman conquest in 1453.
c. 1453
Materials from the church may have been used for the construction of neighboring mosques. Since Christians still owned the land of the church, they cultivated the area as a garden called Karagöz Bostan.
1750-5
A Christian from Epirus (in modern-day Greece) purchased the land and his daughter dreamed that the property contained a holy spring (Greek: Aghiasma). Excavations revealed a passageway and reservoir, as well as a marble icon dated to 1080.
1850-1900
Over time, the Macedonian Educational Brotherhood of Constantinople purchased the property from the Epirote's family and conducted repairs and alterations.
1955-6
The church was severely damaged in the anti-Greek riots of September 1955 (Turkish: 6-7 Eylül Olayları) and was then restored. These riots were part of the process of national
homogenization and Turkification in post-Ottoman Republican Turkey.
21st century
Currently the site is an active Greek Orthodox Church, part of the patrimony of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul.
Local Sites
Local Sites Map
Local Sites Map. Click to expand.
Click on each point to visit two other religious sites that are mentioned by visitors to Vefa, the Molla Zeyrek Cami (previously Monastery of Christ Pantocrator) and the Fatih Mosque (previously the Church of Holy Apostles). Both of these sites were converted to mosques during the Ottoman times, yet their layered history is appealing to visitors who make these three sites part of their sacred itinerary.
Church of Mary, Vefa
Church of Mary, Vefa. Click to expand.
Fatih Mosque
Fatih Mosque. Click to expand.
The former Church of Holy Apostles became the site for the construction of the Fatih Mosque, the first of the largest mosque complexes built in early Ottoman history.
Zeyrek Mosque
Zeyrek Mosque . Click to expand.
Monastery of Christ Pantocrator, a Byzantine monastery built in the 12th century during the reign of the Conmenos dynasty, by the wife Irene of Jean II Conmenos, was a magnificent monastery. It was built to join three buildings and to house 700 monks, a hospital, a hostel and an old age home. This monastery was to become Molla Zeyrek Cami after the conquest of Constantinople.
Local Sites Map
Click on each point to visit two other religious sites that are mentioned by visitors to Vefa, the Molla Zeyrek Cami (previously Monastery of Christ Pantocrator) and the Fatih Mosque (previously the Church of Holy Apostles). Both of these sites were converted to mosques during the Ottoman times, yet their layered history is appealing to visitors who make these three sites part of their sacred itinerary.
Church of Mary, Vefa
Fatih Mosque
The former Church of Holy Apostles became the site for the construction of the Fatih Mosque, the first of the largest mosque complexes built in early Ottoman history.
Zeyrek Mosque
Monastery of Christ Pantocrator, a Byzantine monastery built in the 12th century during the reign of the Conmenos dynasty, by the wife Irene of Jean II Conmenos, was a magnificent monastery. It was built to join three buildings and to house 700 monks, a hospital, a hostel and an old age home. This monastery was to become Molla Zeyrek Cami after the conquest of Constantinople.
Practices
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Gallery Guidelines
This slideshow follows a common path pilgrims take through the church and shows traditions and practices that are often shared by Christian and Muslim visitors of many denominations.Click on a picture to see the image full screen.
A silver icon sits in a wooden frame.
Outside Vendors
At the church's gate, a visitor might make a purchase from the vendors who set up outside.
Amulets
Objects for different needs: evil eye (Turkish: nazar boncuğu), money, love, cars, work, health, luck, school, house, marriage, etc.
Courtyard
In the courtyard, visitors queue to enter the church on busy days, typically on the first of month. They also mingle and chat before and after going into the church.
Entry
Chatter falls away as visitors enter the church.
Church Vendors
Inside there is a kiosk where visitors can obtain items for use in making their prayers from Church employees.
Objects
Many purchase small keys, each symbolizing a prayer to be made. Sometimes they will obtain tamata (amulets) in the form of thin silver images representing their need (a house, a body part in need of healing, etc), and small medallions of the Virgin Mary, as well as containers for the holy water. After fulfillment, the key must be discarded, usually into a body of water.
Candles
Visitors often purchase a few candles, which are lit and placed into a stand.
Unlocking the Icons
Visitors use their keys to symbolically "unlock" icon cases around the upper and lower levels. They might circle the images a few times, repeating their prayers. Many return to repeat this for several months consecutively.
Lower Level
Most visitors will go down the staircase to the lower level where the spring is located, along with additional icons and a small chapel.
Holy Spring (Turkish: Aghiasma/Ayazma)
Visitors wash their hands and face in the holy spring, and often take water home in containers.
The Priest
Visitors, both Christian and Muslim, often stop to consult with the priest and receive blessings.
After Pilgrimage
Visitors sometimes offer each other sugar cubes or other sweets when their prayers and wishes are answered.
Objects
Sacred spaces are always populated by material objects that circulate, animate the life of the site, focus attention, and accumulate spiritual power. These items are sometimes shared and sometimes particular to one or more of the religious groups engaged. Observing similarities and differences in such engagements is very important to understanding the nature of religious investments in a shared space.
Click on the info corner to learn more about the objects of the church.
Small pile of metal keys in an outstretched hand.
Video
Footage of a pilgrimage day (2014), which happens every first of the month. Every Tuesday and Thursday, visitors pray on their own.
Video of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the church.
