Book Review
The Avar Siege of Constantinople in 626 by Martin Hurbanic
Palgrave Macmillan. 2019
“The Avar Siege of Constantinople in 626” is an outstanding and very well researched book about the attack on the City by the Persians and the Avars in 626 AD. While the Emperor Heraclius was waging war on the Persians in the East in defense of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, the Avars were trying to take Constantinople by the Sea.
The book is an excellent recollection of the events as they transpired from contemporaneous accounts of the siege of Constantinople. There are numerous historical sources from later centuries that were likewise cited in the recounting of events that transpired. This assault on Constantinople remains in the memory and consciousness of the Orthodox Church up to the present time.
“The Akathist “Hymn” which is sung during the first five weeks of Great Lent is attributed to the victory over the Avars at this time. Certainly, the Christians of Constantinople believed that the victory over the Avars was a miracle. The Author cites numerous ecclesiastical sources who attributed the victory to the intercessions of the Holy Theotokos (Mother of God).
Sources cited from both Byzantines and Avars include eyewitness testimony that a woman appeared over the walls near the Blachernae section of the City. This was considered by the faithful to be the Mother of God who interceded to save the City as there was (and still is) a Church at Blachernae that was not only built in her honor, but which contained a holy garment that belonged to the Theotokos. Most interesting are the eyewitnesses among the Avars who claimed to have seen a mysterious woman over the walls.
The Byzantines interpreted the victory as a miracle. In addition, the Avars were compared to the Egyptians who drowned in the Red Sea. Sergius, the Patriarch of Constantinople at the time was considered a new Moses.
This is indeed an excellent book on the history of Byzantium and the city of Constantinople. The author has done great research into when the inhabitants of the Empire considered their capital to be under the protection of the Theotokos. It appears that with the victory over the Avars after the appeals made to the Mother of God that Constantinople was considered to be under the protection of the Most Holy Theotokos.
That protection lasted until 1453 when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks. During that final and fateful siege, the last inhabitants of Christian Constantinople feared that the Theotokos withdrew her protection from the City when her Icon which was being carried in a procession fell down.
We live in interesting times today. The Turks are planning to turn the Great Church of Aghia Sophia into a Mosque. May the protection of the Holy Theotokos be restored over the Church of Aghia Sophia and over the Church of Constantinople itself which has badly stumbled and estranged itself from the Orthodox Church owing to the tragic events in Ukraine.
In the Akathistos Hymn, we sing,
“To you the champion leader, do I your city, ascribe thank offerings of victory,
For you O Mother of God, have delivered me from terrors; but as you have invincible power, do you free me from every kind of danger, so that to you I may cry: hail, o bride unwedded”