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In the second phase of the Iconomachy the iconoclast revival of the 9th
century, Michael Syncellus and his two disciples, Theophanes and Theodore
the Graptoi, came over from Palestine and settled in the monastery.
After a period of decline the monastery was restored in the 11th century by
Maria Ducaena, grand-daughter of Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria and a relative of
Empress Catherine, wife of Isaac I Comnenus (1057-lO59). The ruined
basilica was replaced by a new church of the Greek-cross plan with dome.
Many Patriarchs are connected with the history of the monastery-among
others, Cosmas I Hierosolymites (1075-1081) and Athanasius I (1289 1293,
1304-1310).
In the early 14th century, the church was restored and redecorated by
Theodore Metochites, Grand Logothete of the Treasury in the reign of
Andronicus II Palaeologus (1282-1328).
Metochites devoted a great part of his life (1303-1321) and immense
fortune to the restoration andredecoration of the monastery of The Holy
Savior in Chora and is believed to have inspired the magnificent
iconographic programme of the church.
A man of vast learning and great abilities, Theodore Metochites, found
himself, at the turn of the 13th to the 14th century, in the midst of the
movement for new spiritual pursuits and the promotion of humane studies,
and associated his name with one of the greatest epochs of artistic
creation.
At a period when the structure of the state was steadily disintegrating
and finances were deteriorating, when the Empire, torn by the quarrel between
Andronicus Il and his grandson Andronicus III, the Catalans and the Genoese, a group of scholarsrallied around
Andronicus II and with their works on the classic authors and the exact
sciences sparked a new flowering of the letters and arts, known as the
Palaeologan Revival. The group included the well-known historian and tutor
of Metochites's children Nicephorus Gregoras and the writer Nicholas
Mesarites.
The Holy Savior in Chora remained in use as a church for sometime after
the Turkish conquest, converted into a mosque known as Kariye Camii. Today it is
preserved as a historical monument, a museum.
The gradual uncovering of the mosaics started in 1876, but it was only in
1948 that systematic works were undertaken. The mosaics were cleaned and
restored by the American Byzantine Institute.
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