---
title: "Byzantium and the Liturgy — Church history"
description: "Constantinople as the centre of the Orthodox world: Hagia Sophia, the Liturgy, hymnography."
url: "https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/history/history-byzantium"
language: "en"
---

Church history · 330–1453

# Byzantium and the Liturgy

Constantinople as the centre of the Orthodox world: Hagia Sophia, the Liturgy, hymnography.

## Contents

1. [The New Rome](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/history/history-byzantium#s1)
2. [Worship](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/history/history-byzantium#s2)
3. [The fall](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/history/history-byzantium#s3)

## The New Rome

Constantine founded Constantinople in 330. Under Justinian (527–565) Hagia Sophia was built — the chief church of the Orthodox world until 1453.

## Worship

Byzantium shaped the Liturgies of St John Chrysostom and St Basil the Great, the daily cycle of services, the system of eight tones (Octoechos) and the genres of the canon and the kontakion (St Romanos the Melodist, St John of Damascus). The Jerusalem and Studite typika defined the order of worship inherited by the Russian Church.

## The fall

Constantinople fell to the Ottomans on 29 May 1453. The Ecumenical Patriarchate continues to exist in Istanbul; since 2020 Hagia Sophia again functions as a mosque.

## Related

- [Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (Istanbul)](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/places/hagia-sophia)
- [St John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/history/saints/john-chrysostom)