e, topon apokismenon kai
hesychon].[194] Furthermore, the monastery of Lips borrowed its name
from its founder or restorer, Constantine Lips;[196] and in harmony with
that fact we find on the apse of one of the two churches which combine
to form Phenere Isa Mesjedi an inscription in honour of a certain
Constantine.[197] Unfortunately the inscription is mutilated, and there
were many Constantines besides the one surnamed Lips. Still, the
presence of the principal name of the builder of the monastery of Lips
on a church, which we have also other reasons to believe belonged to
that monastery, adds greatly to the cumulative force of the argument in
favour of the view that Constantine Lips is the person intended. But, if
necessary, the argument can be still further strengthened. The church
attached to the monastery of Lips was dedicated to the Theotokos, as may
be inferred from the circumstance that the annual state visit of the
emperor to that shrine took place on the festival of the Nativity of the
Virgin.[198] So likewise was the sanctuary which Phenere Isa Mesjedi
represents, for the inscription it bears invokes her blessing upon the
building and its builder (Fig. 42). Would that the identity of all the
churches in Constantinople could be as strongly established.

It remains to add in this connection that while the monastery of Lips
and that of the Panachrantos associated with Veccus were different
Houses, the churches of both monasteries were dedicated to the Theotokos
under the same attribute--Panachrantos, the Immaculate. The invocation
inscribed on Phenere Isa Mesjedi addresses the Theotokos by that
epithet. But to identify different churches because of the same
dedication is only another instance of the liability to allow similarity
of names to conceal the difference between things.

The distinction thus established between the two monasteries is
important not only in the interests of accuracy; it also throws light on
the following historical incidents. In 1245 permission was granted for
the transference of the relics of S. Philip the Apostle from the church
of the Panachrantos to Western Europe. The document authorising that act
was signed by the dean of the church and by the treasurer of S.
Sophia.[199] The intervention of the latter official becomes more
intelligible when we know that the monastery of the Panachrantos stood
near S. Sophia, and not, as Paspates maintains, at Phenere Isa Mesjedi.
Again, the Patria