king the
Golden Horn from the heights above Oun Kapan, was the famous church of
S. Saviour Pantokrator. There is no reason for doubting the accuracy of
this identification. The church was so important, and so closely
associated with events which occurred late in the history of the city,
that its identity could not be forgotten by the Greek ecclesiastical
authorities soon after the Turkish conquest. Moreover, all indications
of the position of the church, although too vague to determine its
precise site, are in harmony with the tradition on the subject. For,
according to Russian pilgrims to the shrines of Constantinople, the
Pantokrator could be reached most readily from the side of the city on
the Golden Horn,[360] and stood in the vicinity of the church of the
Holy Apostles[361]--particulars that agree with the situation of Zeirek
Kilissi Jamissi.

The church was founded by the Empress Irene,[362] the consort of John
II. Comnenus (1118-1143), and daughter of Ladislas, King of Hungary. She
came to Constantinople shortly before 1105 as the Princess Pyrisca, a
beautiful girl, 'a plant covered with blossoms, promising rich fruit,'
to marry John Comnenus, then heir-apparent to the crown of Alexius
Comnenus, and adorned eight years of her husband's reign by the
simplicity of her tastes and her great liberality to the poor. The
monastic institutions of the city also enjoyed her favour, and not long
before her death in 1126 she assumed the veil under the name of Xene.
The foundations of the church were, probably, laid soon after her
husband's accession to the throne, and to the church she attached a
monastery capable of accommodating seven hundred monks;[363] a
xenodocheion, a home for aged men, and a hospital.[364]

But the pious and charitable lady had undertaken more than she could
perform, and was obliged to turn to the emperor for sympathy and
assistance. Accordingly she took him, one day, to see the edifice while
in course of erection, and falling suddenly at his feet, implored him
with tears to complete her work. The beauty of the building and the
devotion of his wife appealed so strongly to John Comnenus that he
forthwith vowed to make the church and monastery the finest in the city,
and altogether worthy of the Pantokrator to whom they were
dedicated;[365] and so well did he keep his promise, that the honour of
being the founder of the church has been bestowed on him by the
historian Nicetas Choniates.[366]

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