W. Robert Godfrey

They wanted a clearly unified Christ, and they wanted to focus often particularly on His divinity.

And Justinian was determined that this heresy would not dominate in the empire and worked hard

to stamp it out.

He was not entirely successful and indeed created lots of tensions and even some divisions in the church.

But he wanted to see Christianity flourish.

He wanted Christianity more intimately connected to the empire, and part of the way in which he did that was to begin a great building program to build great churches to honor God

and in the process a little bit to honor Justinian as the great Roman emperor, encouraging Christianity.

And so he built the great church Hagia Sophia, Holy Wisdom, in Istanbul.

It still stands today.

It was for centuries the largest church in Christendom.

the great domed church.

People used to say when you're inside and looked up at the gold mosaics, the domes seemed to float above the earth, and it was an amazing experience built in 537.

He built other churches in Constantinople, including the Church of the Apostles in 550 that became the tombs of the emperors.

for centuries.

He built the Basilica of St.

John outside of Ephesus.

Those of us who were on the trip were able to see that basilica now in ruins, but where the Apostle John is supposedly buried.

So he invested in this church-building program, and one of the most remarkable churches that he built that still survives intact is in the Italian city of Ravenna.

where you can see a very famous mosaic of Justinian himself there facing down on the altar in his glory.

He looks like he needs a shave.