ΒΧΜ

The center of public worship in Byzantium was the church. There the faithful gathered to celebrate the most important events from the life of Christ and the Virgin, to honor the memory of the saints, to listen to homilies and to pray. There a wide range of ecclesiastical services were celebrated, first and foremost the divine liturgy.

For the Byzantines, the church was not only the House of God writ small; it was “whole universe” in miniature. This conception left its imprint on the architectural configuration and adornment of the church: art became the handmaiden of worship.