Heybeliada, Refah Martyrs Street No:49, 34973 Adalar/Istanbul, Turkey
The archipelago owes its original name — the Red Islands — to this very island, as there was an ancient copper mine here (Chalkos - "copper"). The copper found here was of exceptionally high quality and was used to make statues for temples and imperial palaces.
From 809 to 811, Theodore the Studite and his followers were imprisoned on the Princes' Islands (the venerable Theodore was sent to a monastery on the island of Chalki, Archbishop Joseph to Proti, Abba Platon to Oksia). Here, Theodore habitually maintained extensive correspondence with his disciples and admirers, encouraging them to strive for virtue, affirming the truth, praising their confession of faith, and persuading them not to accept the anti-church decree of the 809 Constantinople Council.
While on Chalki, Theodore wrote several letters, theological treatises, and poems, one of which was lovingly addressed to the monastic cell where he was confined. Theodore does not name the monastery, but other evidence apparently indicates that it was the Holy Trinity. Theodore’s letters mention that after the assassination of Leo V in 820, his widow, Empress Theodora, and her daughters were exiled to a monastery on Chalki by the new emperor Michael II. Theodore and other residents of the Holy Trinity were then evicted to make room for the empress and her daughters. Thus, there apparently was another monastic institution on Chalki where displaced monks could find refuge, possibly the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist.
He even sought to form a coalition against the emperor, trying to engage the Orthodox East and Rome in the Byzantine anti-Michael movement. While imprisoned, he wrote letters to Pope Leo of Rome; however, Pope Leo responded to all pleas for assistance only with moral sympathy. Theodore was released in 811 after the accession of a new emperor.
It is assumed that Christian monasteries arose here even before Constantine the Great moved the capital of the Roman Empire to New Rome (Constantinople). But the island is notable for housing the last monastery built in the Byzantine Empire on the eve of the fall of Constantinople in 1453. This Monastery of John the Forerunner owes its existence to Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, who ordered its construction in memory of his third wife, Maria Komnene. The emperor loved to travel extensively through Western Europe, so upon his return to Constantinople in 1440, he found that his last wife was no longer alive. The emperor’s deep sorrow led him to the idea of immortalizing the memory of the union of the two royal persons in the form of a new monastery, of which only a small chapel has survived to this day.
As for prisoners of noble origin, from 820 the wife of Emperor Leo V the Armenian, Theodosia, and her children were exiled on this island in the Monastery of the Holy Trinity. By order of the new emperor Michael II, the boys, including Leo V’s son and co-ruler Constantine Symbat, were castrated so that they could not claim the throne in the future. However, the reigning bishop showed "mercy" by regularly sending the exiles income from their property.
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