W. Robert Godfrey

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.

He didn't have a good director to help him with his look there on the wall.

but it's the most famous picture of Justinian that we have.

And so here he is, this Christian emperor advancing the cause of Christ, beginning this foundation, you see, of an experiment in Christian civilization with his great building program and his willingness to persecute not only deviant Christian ideas but the pagans as well.

It was Justinian that seems to have led to the closing of the Platonic Academy in Athens in 529.

That academy had been open almost a thousand years as a center of pagan philosophy, and it came to an end under Justinian.

Again, a sign of his determination that he would have a Christian empire.

He was also a great administrator.