St John XXIII’s Church in Istanbul

The basilica of St Anthony of Padua is the biggest Catholic church in Istanbul. GUNTHER SIMMERMACHER writes about the basilica where the future Pope John XXIII preached, and two nearby churches.

The Catholic Church is present everywhere, even in a nation such as Turkey, where Muslims constitute 98% of the population and the tiny Christian minority is mainly Orthodox.

Istanbul not only has Catholic parishes but also historic churches in central areas. Within just over 2km of one another in the modern and popular Beyoglu/Galata area of Turkey’s largest city are three active churches with a long history, in addition to the cathedral of the Holy Spirit in the Harbiye district, and several other churches elsewhere.

Beyoglu and Galata are on the opposite side of the Old City, across the Golden Horn. It is a cosmopolitan part of the city of 14 million. The Orient Express used to arrive at Sirkeci terminal in the Old City, but its wealthy passengers would be transported across Galata Bridge to the opulent (and recently rejuvenated) Pera Palace Hotel in Beyoglu, which used to be called Pera.

The area’s elegant main street was then called Pera Avenue; today it is called Stiklal Caddesi (Independence Avenue), now a pedestrian zone famous for its single-carriage trams that transport passengers from Taksim Square at one end to the medieval Genoese district of Galata on the other.

The famous Galata Tower, built in 1348 by the merchants of Genoa, overlooks the Old City with its famous skyline with the Sultan Ahmet and Suleyman mosques, the Topkapi Palace and the Hagia Sophia, as well as, across the Bosphorus, the Asian part of the city.

Near the tower is the 19th-century church of Ss Peter and Paul, founded by the Dominicans in the 15th century, and historically linked to both Venice and the king of France. Once it was the church of newly-arrived Catholic immigrants; now it serves the Maltese community with Masses said in Italian.

The other two churches of the Levantine (Latin Christian) quarter of Istanbul are right on Stiklal Avenue, among the shops and restaurants and consulates.

The older of them is the church of St Mary Draperis, which was built between 1678 and 1769 by Franciscans who had a run of very bad luck with fires burning down their previous churches since the 15th century, and Ottoman officials confiscating their property.

The church is named after the woman, Clara Maria Draperis, who in 1584 donated the friars’ original chapel in Galata. That chapel burnt down, but an icon of Our Lady was rescued from the altar. It survived subsequent fires and still adorns the altar of the current church.

St Mary Draperis church, which offers Masses in Italian and Spanish, also has a statue of St Anthony of Padua, the saint to whom the other church on Stiklal Avenue is dedicated.

And to your faithful correspondent, it is a very special church because it incorporates three saints that attract his devotion: Ss Anthony of Padua, Maximilian Kolbe and John XXIII.

The church’s address at number 171 is prestigious: next to it is the former Russian consulate (now all former embassies are consulates since the Turkish capital is in Ankara), opposite the British consulate, and nearby the French consulate. And a stone’s throw away is the Galatasaray High School which gave birth to the famous football club of the same name.

Saint Anthony of Padua was the parish church of Cardinal Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII, when he was the nuncio to Turkey from 1935-44. A statue of St John XXIII in the lovely courtyard was inaugurated by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit in 2006. Images in the church still recall that visit. Pope Paul VI visited in 1964, but neither St John Paul II nor Pope Francis popped in during their trips to Istanbul.

The followers of St Francis had once a massive church in Galata, built in the 1230s and dedicated to St Sophia of the Latins. So the Franciscans built a new church on Pera Avenue, completing it in 1724, and dedicated it to St Anthony of Padua. But in 1904 the church had to be demolished to make way for the construction of the new tramway; the present church was built from 1906-11 to serve the 40000 Catholics in the area at the time.

The red-brick church, built in Venetian neo-gothic style by Italian architects in the form of a Latin cross, is Istanbul’s largest Catholic church. It was elevated to the rank of a basilica by Pope Pius XI in 1932.

The same year Archbishop Roncalli, then nuncio in Bulgaria, came to preach in the church to mark the 700th centenary of St Anthony’s death. It was the beginning of a long association.

The future pope spoke fluent Turkish and had such an obvious affection for the country – when the Second World War broke out he prayed to St Anthony in his church that Turkey be spared its horrors – that he is known as “The Turkish Pope”. He is remembered so fondly that the street where he lived is now named after him.

St Anthony of Padua church has traditionally served foreign residents, but since the 1980s the parish has included Turkish in its Masses as well as in its parish life as a way of serving the tiny indigenous community, which calls the church Sent Antuan Kilisesi. Its four Sunday Masses are in English, Italian, Polish and Turkish respectively, and weekday Masses in English and in Turkish.

On each side of the church are six-storey apartment buildings, income from which helps finance the parish’s operations.

Inside the basilica is a gilded wooden statue of St Anthony holding the Child Jesus. It was carved by the Italian artist Luigi Bresciani, who also made the wood crucifix above the main altar.

A bronze bust commemorates St Maximilian Kolbe, the Franciscan journalist and missionary who was killed by the Nazis in Auschwitz. It was made by the renowned Turkish sculptor Sermin Guner (she has created another 18 works in the church).

That church burnt down twice, in 1639 and 1660, and each time it was rebuilt.

In 1696 another fire swept Galata, destroying the whole neighbourhood, but the church was miraculously spared. It did not help the friars: Sultan Mustapha II confiscated the church and turned it into a mosque, as Muslim rulers frequently did after their conquest of Constantinople in 1453.

At Christmas the church becomes an extravaganza of seasonal decoration. This winter two tall Christmas trees stood in the sanctuary, while a huge Nativity scene, with much detail and beautifully lit, stood in the transept, giving the basilica a magical atmosphere.

In the courtyard there was another large Nativity scene – these were, of course, invented by St Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscans – and a tall Christmas tree next to the statue of St John XXIII.

One may see priests in religious garb in the precincts of the church, but one will not see a Roman collar on the streets of Istanbul. Turkey’s secular constitution forbids the wearing in public of all clothing which can be identified as sectarian, whatever the religion.

And so the basilica of St Anthony of Padua, located on one of the world’s busiest shopping streets, is an oasis of Catholic faith and calm amid Istanbul’s buzzing commerce.

Gunther Simmermacher is the author of The Holy Land Trek: A Pilgrim’s Guide. See holylandtrek.com